Police searching for four missing teenagers who went on a camping trip in North Wales have found the silver Ford Fiesta the group were last seen travelling in and sealed off the area around it.
Sixth form students Jevon Hirst, Harvey Owen, Wilf Henderson and Hugo Morris were last seen in the Porthmadog area of Gwynedd on Sunday morning.
The teenagers, from Shrewsbury, Shropshire, were due home on Monday but none of them have made contact with friends and family or been active on WhatsApp.
On Tuesday afternoon, the A4085 which runs through the village of Garreg was cordoned off following information from a member of the public. An air ambulance and forensics van are also on the scene.
North Wales Police have not said whether the boys have been found or given an update on their condition, but are set to give a press conference later today.
Locals reported that it had rained at the weekend, leading to rising river levels and ‘poor visibility’ in the mountainous area. One resident, Emyr Owen, told the BBC there had been ‘atrocious weather’ on Sunday, the day the boys went missing.
Crystal Owen, the mother of Harvey, a 17-year-old student at Shrewsbury College doing A-levels, said she was unaware her son had gone camping and thought he was staying at a friend’s grandfather’s house for the night.
She said: ‘If I’d have known [where he was going] I wouldn’t have let him due to the winter weather conditions. They are all sensitive, intelligent lads and we are just hoping they parked up, got lost and are OK.’
Jevon Hirst, Harvey Owen, Wilf Henderson and Hugo Morris, who were said to be in their late teens, were last seen getting into a silver Ford Fiesta car on Sunday morning and haven’t been seen since
Locals reported that a helicopter had been searching the Penrhyndeudraeth area before heading toward Nantmor and Beddgelert
Police have cordoned off the A8045 near the village of Garreg, near to where the car was found
Emergency services were on the scene on the A8045 near the village of Garreg on Tuesday afternoon
Emergency services on the scene in the village of Garreg, where the car four missing boys were travelling in has been found
A Welsh Ambulance Service spokesman said: ‘We were called on Tuesday at approximately 10.08am to reports of an incident near the A4085 between Nantmor and Tan-Lan.
‘We sent an operations manager, two emergency ambulances and two Cymru high acuity response units to the scene where we were supported by the emergency medical retrieval and transfer service in two Wales Air Ambulance charity helicopters.’
The road has been described as a ‘windy, narrow and steep’ by a BBC reporter at the scene. The group of boys are thought to be around 17 years old – the age that you can legally start driving in the UK.
Gareth Pritchard, former deputy chief constable of North Wales Police, said the search for the missing teenagers will be challenging for emergency services as the area is ‘vast’.
Helicopters were seen circling the Tremadog area, near Cnicht mountain in Snowdonia, on Tuesday morning in the hunt for the missing boys.
A coastguard helicopter from Caernarfon searched the area around the Glaslyn Nature Reserve at 4.30am, but returned to base with ‘nothing found’.
It has emerged that the four were not experienced campers and only had a tent and sleeping bags with them.
Lisa Corfield, whose daughter Maddi is 17-year-old Wilf’s girlfriend, told : ‘They are not experienced campers. They have never been there before. [They] were just going for the night so have a tent and sleeping bags but only the basics.’
Harvey’s mother reposted the appeal post shared by North Wales Police on Facebook and wrote: ‘I am frantic with worry, one of these boys is my son Harvey, please please please share and tag anyone in Wales or get in touch with any information you may have.’
Harvey lives in a £460,000 townhouse in an affluent suburb of Shrewsbury.
Neighbours were today praying for the safe return home of the 17-year-old Shrewsbury College student.
One told : ‘Everyone is praying that Harvey and the other boys come home safe. It must be a very worrying time for their parents.’
Meanwhile, friends of Keir and Melanie Hirst have said they are going through ‘every parent’s worst nightmare’.
Jevon, the youngest of three children, went missing along with three of his friends on Sunday.
Julia Dean-Richards, 61, who runs the Community in Good Hands Cafe in Shrewsbury, where Mrs Hirst as a baker, said: ‘I can’t imagine the agony Mel must be going through.
‘I saw her yesterday when she dashed in to drop off some brownies she’d made.
‘She is simply adorable, a very talented baker who is obliging to all our needs.
‘This is going to affect the whole community. It is heartbreaking to think what she must be enduring now – every parent’s worst nightmare.’
A cleaner at the Hirst household, who asked not to be named, said: ‘The last time I was here was Saturday. It doesn’t look like much has happened in the house since then which is not surprising. I guess they have gone to Wales.’
Ms Hirst, said the family were ‘desperate for any news’ and pleaded users to keep sharing the post on Facebook.
Ms Corfield said the boys have not been seen or heard from and she begged people to share the post with as many people as possible so that they could ‘try and get them home safely’.
She told the Shropshire Star that the group set out to go camping on Saturday and were expected back on Sunday morning, but they ‘never returned’.
Ms Corfield said: ‘Everybody is sick with worry and have not heard anything from them, which is very unusual for them. They have been trying their phones which must be either off or with no battery.’
Another mother of one of the missing boys wrote on a public Facebook group to ask for help.
Heather Sanderson wrote: ‘Good evening, my son and his three friends have been missing since yesterday lunchtime.
‘They left Harlech and their phone records show they were in Porthmadog at 12 midday yesterday Sunday 19th November.
‘They had some camping equipment with them but we are very concerned at the time since they contacted family and friends.’
She signed off the message with ‘please help if you can’ and said that all the boys are ‘just 17 years old’.
Locals reported that a helicopter had been searching the Penrhyndeudraeth area before heading toward Nantmor and Beddgelert.
The area where the boys are missing is remote and mountainous, with narrow, winding single-lane roads into Snowdonia National Park.
The young men, believed to be from the Shrewsbury area, were due home from their trip on Monday morning but none of them have made contact with friends and family. Pictured: Wilf Henderson
North Wales Police released an update about the car the boys were in on Tuesday afternoon
North Wales Police have launched an urgent hunt for the missing youngsters, with their worried parents driving to the area to help with the search after being left ‘frantic with worry’. Pictured: Jevon Hirst
The missing group are believed to have been planning to travel through Snowdonia, heading east from the Welsh coastal areas of Porthmadog and Harlech towards Shrewsbury, Shrops
The lack of contact was said to be out of character and friends said their families are ‘worried sick’. Pictured: Family members post on Facebook
Shrewsbury College has also issued a statement, telling the BBC that they ‘hope the teenagers are found safe and well soon’.
Police and mountain rescue teams are searching the area for the group and have urged anyone who may have seen them to contact them immediately.
North Wales Police said in a statement: ‘Police have concerns for four young males missing from the Harlech/Porthmadog area since the morning of the 19/11/23.
‘The four males’ names are Jevon Hirst, Harvey Owen, Wilf Henderson and Hugo Morris.
‘Any sightings please contact North Wales Police and quote ref num A184194.’