Madrid: Spanish rescue teams in Tenerife have found human remains in the area where British teenager Jay Slater went missing nearly a month ago, local police said on Monday, adding that evidence strongly suggested the remains were those of the teenager.

The Guardia Civil police said in a statement that the deceased – confirmed to be a young male – may have died due to a fall in the difficult-to-access mountainous area, but that an autopsy would show whether it was an accident.

Slater, 19, went missing on June 17 and his phone was last traced to the Masca ravine in a remote national park on the Canary Islands archipelago.

The morning after attending a music festival, it is believed Slater had set out to walk from Masca, a village in the north-west of the island, to where he was staying in Los Cristianos in the south. It was a trip that would have taken about 11 hours on foot over rugged terrain.

A police spokesperson told Reuters by phone that the body was found on Monday morning by a Civil Guard mountain rescue group.

Slater’s family had been notified and an autopsy would take place, with the case then being transferred to a Tenerife court to determine the cause of death, the spokesperson said.

On June 30, Spanish police said they had ended a search for Slater that had involved dozens of officers, rescue workers and volunteers using dogs, drones and a helicopter.

However, on Monday they said Guardia Civil officers had nonetheless maintained a “continuous and discrete search” in the area after the official search was called off.

British overseas missing persons charity LBT Global, which has carried several statements on behalf of the family, said in an email that the body found “looks to be that of Jay Slater”.