Down Angle Symbol A symbol in the form of an angle pointing downwards. Pyrenees, France. Getty Images
- Alex Batty went missing in 2017 at the age of 11 while on holiday with his mother and grandfather.
- He was found walking on a mountain road in France on Wednesday.
- His mother probably influenced him to pursue an “alternative lifestyle,” his grandmother said.
A British boy who went missing after a family holiday in Spain has been found on a street in France almost six years later.
Alex Batty, now 17, was on vacation with his mother and grandfather, neither of whom had guardianship of him when he disappeared in 2017, the BBC reported.
His grandmother, Susan Caruana, said in 2018 that she believed they followed an “alternative lifestyle” and didn't want him to go to school.
Batty told French authorities that he was taken to Morocco, where they spent two years before living a nomadic lifestyle, moving through the Pyrenees, which lie on the border between France and Spain.
Alex Batty from Greater Manchester, UK, went missing in 2017. Greater Manchester Police/Handout via Portal
The boy was found on the road in the foothills of the Pyrenees early Wednesday morning by Fabien Accidini, a driver.
“He explained that he had been walking for four days and had set out from a place in the mountains, but did not say where,” Accidini said, according to the BBC.
Accidini said he looked up Batty's name online and found he was being searched for.
He then contacted the French authorities for help.
The boy told Accidini that he lived in a luxury home in Spain with about 10 people as part of a “spiritual community” before moving to France around 2021.
Batty used Accidini's Facebook account to send a message to his grandmother: “Hello Grandma, it's me Alex. I am in France, Toulouse. I really hope you get this message. I love you, I want to come home.” “
“I'm so happy. I have spoken to him and he is fine,” Caruana told The Sun. “It’s such a shock.”
Batty said he decided to leave the Pyrenees when his mother told him they had to move to Finland, although it was not clear why she made the move, according to the BBC.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said, according to the BBC: “We are supporting a British citizen in France and are in contact with local authorities.”
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