British consular staff are liaising with police in Berlin to identify an English-speaking teenager who emerged in the German capital saying he had lived in the woods with his father for the last five years.
Today, a spokesman for the Foreign Office said consular staff were assisting officials in Berlin but it was not yet known if the boy, thought to be 17 or 18, was a British national.
The teenager, called Ray, appeared at Berlin’s city hall on September 5 and was taken in by a youth emergency centre.
Today, police said they had approached Interpol to see if the boy matches any missing person reports. Officers will not know the results of the inquiry until Monday.
Claudia Elitok, of Berlin Police, said: “He speaks fluent English and a few words in German.
“He remembers his name but we are not releasing it. He explained that the last five years were spent in the woods with his father, then his father died and he buried him He was walking for two weeks before getting to Berlin,” she said. “He has said what happened to his mother but I can’t go into that information. He was found in good condition and is being taken care of by officials.”
Detectives are going over everything Ray has told them to establish a picture of his background and biography.
It is not known if Ray will accompany police to the spot where he left his father and began his journey to the capital.
The teenager’s story is reminiscent of the Piano Man, German Andreas Grassl, who was found wandering the streets of Sheerness, Kent, in 2005.
Despite Europe-wide appeals, no-one knew who the 20-year-old was. For months he remained uncommunicative except for showing his accomplished pianist skills.