Alex disappeared at the age of 11 and was found at 17
Photo: GREATER MANCHESTER POLIC / BBC News Brasil
A 17yearold English boy who went missing in Spain in 2017 has been found in France, authorities said.
Teenager Alex Batty was found on Wednesday (December 13) in the town of Revel, east of Toulouse.
He was found by a delivery driver traveling on a dark, mountainous road in the early hours of the morning.
Six years ago, then 11yearold Alex was on vacation with his mother and grandfather when they disappeared in Spain.
A police source told the BBC that Alex was taken to the police station by a driver.
The driver, Fabien Accidini, brought medicine to pharmacies near the village of Chalabre.
It was raining when he passed a young man walking on the side of an unlit mountain road around 3 a.m. Wednesday.
After being handed over to police, the boy said he had been in France for two years, the police source said.
He was in good health and did not say he had been illtreated in any way.
The Toulouse public prosecutor's office confirmed the identity to the BBC, saying: “It is the missing child. The family confirmed it.”
His grandmother and legal guardian Susan Caruana told the BBC in 2018 that she believed Alex's mother Melanie Batty and grandfather David Batty had taken the boy to live in a spiritual community in Morocco.
She said they were looking for an alternative lifestyle and didn't want Alex to go to school.
Alex Batty (center) disappeared with his mother Melanie Batty and his grandfather David Batty
Photo: GMP / BBC News Brasil
A local journalist told the BBC that a delivery man saw the boy walking down a road in the foothills of the Pyrenees with a backpack and a skateboard. He felt sorry for him and offered him a ride.
“They spent three hours together in the car and the boy told his story,” says Remi Buhagiar of the newspaper La Depeche.
“He said he lived in a sort of traveling community. “He wasn't under any pressure, but he said he found his mother a bit strange and decided that he didn't want that kind of life and that he wanted to make his own life in his own way that's why he decided to leave,” he adds .
Alex had been walking in the hills for days, Buhagiar explained.
“He asked the driver if he could borrow his phone and sent his grandmother a message on Facebook saying he was fine and wanted to see her,” he said.
The area where it was found is known for attracting people looking for alternative lifestyles.
The boy is currently in the care of social services. British police were contacted via the embassy in Paris.
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