How the missing British boy, Alex Batty, was found six years after his disappearance.
Back in October 2017, a then 11-year-old from Oldham, Alex Batty, failed to return from a holiday in Spain with his mother and grandfather. Susan Caruana, Alex’s grandmother and his official guardian, quickly notified police.
Over the coming years, Susan was reportedly left ‘heartbroken’, unaware of what had happened to her grandson, and worried if she would ever see him again. This week, she received a message from a now 17-year-old Alex, reading; ‘I love you, I want to come home’.
The now teenager was picked up by a lorry driver ‘walking alone for days on an isolated country road in the French mountains’. He reportedly told the driver his mother had "kidnapped" him in 2017.
On Thursday, French prosecutors confirmed they had found Alex alive and well near Toulouse after he fled a “spiritual community” in the Pyrenees.
Greater Manchester Police have said they were working with the French authorities to bring Alex Batty back to Britain quickly.
The whereabouts of Alex’s mother and grandfather are currently unknown but they are wanted for questioning.
In a statement, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said: “We are supporting a British national in France and are in contact with local authorities.”
Our crime reporter John Dunne explains the details behind this incredible story.
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