A 17-year-old British boy missing for six years has been found in France.
Alex Batty is at a young person’s centre in Toulouse and could be back in the UK within hours, the prosecutors’ office in the city told the BBC.
Alex used a motorist’s phone to message his grandmother in the UK, saying “I love you, I want to come home”.
He had been missing since 2017, but was found on Wednesday morning by the motorist who spotted him walking through rain near Toulouse.
The boy disappeared after going on holiday with his mother and grandfather in Spain.
The pair, who do not have parental guardianship of Alex, have not been located but remain wanted in connection with his disappearance.
A police source earlier told BBC News the boy had been taken to a police station by the concerned motorist who had spotted him on a road in the foothills of the Pyrenees early on Wednesday morning.
The motorist, delivery driver Fabien Accidini, saw Alex walking along a road in the foothills of the Pyrenees in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
“He explained that he had been walking for four days, that he set off from a place in the mountains, though he didn’t say where,” Mr Accidini said.
“I typed his name into the internet and saw that he was being looked for,” he said.
Mr Accidini told local media Alex’s plan had been to find a big city with an embassy to find assistance. Instead, Mr Accidini contacted French authorities for help.
Alex used Mr Accidini’s Facebook account to contact his grandmother back in the UK.
He wrote: “Hello Grandma, it’s me Alex. I’m in France Toulouse. I really hope that you receive this message. I love you, I want to come home.” (BBC)
