Stephen Devine News Today

Alex Batty has said that life is good as he spoke about having new found friends at college - a change from the commune where he said there was nobody his own age.

The 17-year-old flew from France s Toulouse Blagnac airport to Amsterdam yesterday before finally touching down in Manchester last night, escorted by police officers.

Alex was found walking along a deserted country road in the middle of night on Wednesday after escaping a nomadic commune he had been living in at the foot of the French Pyrenees.

Six years after he went missing with his mother and grandfather Alex Batty was found earlier this week wandering along a country road in France and is set for an emotional reunion with his grandmother today

Alex Batty will be flown back to the UK today to be reunited with his grandmother six years after going missing from a holiday in Spain with his mother and grandfather.

Alex will live with his grandmother, six years after he was allegedly kidnapped by his mother and grandfather to live in Spain and the French Pyrenees

Alex Batty, 17, was picked up on the D16 - an unlit single carriageway country road between the French towns of Chalabre and Mirepoix - by Fabien Accidini, a chiropractic student from Toulouse.

Alex Batty, from Oldham, Greater Manchester, was just 11 when he did not return from a holiday to Spain with his mother Melanie, then 37, and grandfather David, then 58, in 2017.

Alex Batty, from Oldham, was just 11 when he did not return from a holiday to Spain with his mother Melanie, then 37, and grandfather David, then 58, in 2017.

EXCLUSIVE: Situated in the tiny hamlet of La Bastide with a population of just 15 people, the local mayor confirmed that Alex, now 17, had lived there with his grandfather David Batty since 2021.