Jay Slater was “the most smiling person in the room.”

A friend of Jay Slater has praised him as the “happiest, most smiling person in the room” after a body was found during a search for him in Tenerife.

Lucy Liu, the last known person to have spoken to Mr Slater during a phone call on June 17, paid tribute to him on her Instagram page.

“Honestly, I can’t find the words to express how happy I am,” she said. “You were always the happiest person in the room, the smileiest. You were one of a kind, Jay, and we will miss you more than you can imagine.”

Spanish police said “all evidence” suggested the body was that of Mr Slater.

They posted video footage of rescuers climbing rocks and struggling through bushes as they searched.

Part of the clip showed two members of the search team being pulled from the area by helicopter after the body was found.

They said Mr Slater, of Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, may have fallen into the steep and inaccessible area where he was found.

“I am sure you will be ready to ‘get your dancing shoes ready’ as we all await,” Ms. Lu continued in her tribute.

“We all love you, my friend. Fly high.”

Sarah Smith, MP for Hyndburn and Haslingden, said she was working to ensure Slater’s family received support from the government, “particularly to work as quickly as possible towards repatriation”.

Mr Slater had attended the NRG music festival with two friends before he disappeared, and his last known whereabouts were the Rural de Teno Park in the northern Canary Islands, about an 11-hour walk from where he lived.

He had travelled to an Airbnb apartment in Maska after a night out, but the two men who were said to have rented the property were later ruled “irrelevant” to the case.

The search for Mr Slater involved his family, friends, police and specialist mountain rescue teams, as well as volunteers from several countries including a group of Dutch mountain rescuers.

LPT Global, which supports families of Britons missing abroad, said that although formal identification had yet to be made, “the body was found along with Mr Slater’s belongings and clothing”.

“A post-mortem examination and forensic investigations will be conducted,” she added.

Spanish police stopped searching for the construction apprentice at the end of June, but in a statement on Monday, the force said teams had not stopped searching every day.

She added that “this discovery was made possible thanks to the continuous and secret search operations carried out by the Civil Guard during these 29 days, during which the natural area was preserved so that it would not be filled with spectators.”

Residents of Mr. Slater’s hometown have offered their support and prayers to his family.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with them,” said Pastor Matt Smith of West End Methodist Church. “We are here to support them when they need us.”

Blue ribbons were tied to trees and lamp posts in Oswaldtwistle and to the fence outside the church to show support for the family.

The church will be open from 19:00 to 20:00 GMT “to give them the opportunity to come together and share their feelings, thoughts and prayers with each other,” Pastor Smith said.

He said the church would be open for people to say prayers, write letters, light candles and “just for people to come and be here and for us to serve the community on their behalf.”

“I think it has affected the community here quite badly because this young man is obviously local and well known,” a member of the Oswaldtwistle community told BBC Radio Lancashire.

“I feel sorry for the family going through this.”