One of the ruined homesteads in the treacherous area of northwest Tenerife where Jay Slater vanished presented “eerie signs of life”, it has been claimed.

A journalist who visited the ravine in the Masca area where the 19-year-old apprentice bricklayer is believed to have been before mysteriously disappearing described what he saw while walking through the unforgiving terrain.

Writing in the MailOnline, Fred Kelly said: “Sharp-needled cacti grow higher than a man’s head and there’s no sound other than the noise of geckos scuttling in the undergrowth and the distant howl of the wind above the ravine.”

The journalist went on to describe “haunting” signs of human presence, albeit he did not link them to Jay.

He said: “In a sinister twist, the Mail found eerie signs of life in one of two ruined homesteads in the ravine: shoelaces tied with twigs to form haunting symbols like something out of a horror film, empty water bottles, and – most strange of all – a set of clean women’s clothes.”

Jay disappeared on the morning of June 17, while on holiday with two friends in the Canary Islands.

After attending a music festival and a party in the Papagayo club in Playa de las Americas with his friends Lucy and Brad, Jay decided to head to an Airbnb in the mountainous region near the village of Masca with two British men who were renting it.

After spending a few hours with them, Jay left the holiday let. In his last phone call to Lucy, he said he was trying to walk back to Los Cristianos where he was staying, despite being several hours away by foot, as he had lost the bus.

Jay also said he was without water, had cut himself with a cactus and had his phone on one percent battery.