LONDON (Reuters) – A 17-year-old British teenager, found in the south of France after going missing six years ago, is expected to be reunited with his family in the north of England in the coming days, British police said on Friday .
Alex Batty disappeared aged 11 while on holiday in Malaga, Spain, spent with his mother and grandfather, who are still wanted in connection with his disappearance.
Manchester police said at a press conference they were working with French authorities to repatriate Alex Batty to his grandmother, who is his legal guardian.
“He is well looked after by the French authorities at the moment (…) Our priority is to bring him back to the UK to his family in Oldham as soon as possible, which should happen in the coming days” , said Chris Sykes, deputy chief of police in Mancun.
The officer said Alex Batty spoke to his grandmother on the phone Thursday evening.
“We will have work to establish the circumstances of his disappearance and the places where he lived all these years,” he added.
La Dépêche du Midi reported Thursday that the teenager was found on Wednesday in Revel (Haute-Garonne) by a delivery driver who picked him up hitchhiking, after leaving a spiritual community.
“He told me that he had been kidnapped by his mother five years ago in Morocco and that afterwards he had been in Spain and that there he had been in France for two years in a spiritual community “, declared Fabien Accidini, the delivery driver, on BFMTV.
(Reporting by Sarah Young; French version by Zhifan Liu, editing by Tangi Salaün)
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