British teen Alex Batty arrives in UK 6 years after vanishing

LONDON: Alex Batty, a British teen who went missing six years ago and was found this week in southwest France, has arrived back in the UK, police said Saturday.

Hailing from the northern English city of Oldham, Alex was picked up on Wednesday night by a driver in a mountainous area of southern France.


"It gives me great pleasure to say Alex has now made his safe return back to the UK after six years," Matt Boyle of Greater Manchester Police told reporters at the force's headquarters in northwest England.

Earlier Saturday, the 17-year-old boarded a KLM flight in Toulouse, headed to London via Amsterdam. He was accompanied by British police officers and a family member, said Boyle.

"This moment was undoubtedly huge for him and his loved ones, and we are glad that they have been able to see each other again after all this time," he added.

Alex will be returned to his maternal grandmother, with whom the British justice system had entrusted his custody before his mother abducted him, aged 11, while on holiday in Spain in 2017.

"I can't wait to see him when we're reunited," Alex's grandmother Susan Caruana -- who according to British media reports is his legal guardian -- said in a statement released by Greater Manchester Police.