The moutainous area in southern France where Alex Batty was found
The moutainous area in southern France where Alex Batty was found AFP

UK police on Friday said they had launched a criminal probe into the alleged kidnapping of a British teenager who resurfaced in France six years after going missing abroad.

The announcement came as 17-year-old Alex Batty told a newspaper he had decided to return to Britain because he wanted a better future.

Greater Manchester Police said it had "launched a criminal investigation into child abduction to understand the circumstances surrounding" Batty's disappearance in September 2017.

The teen vanished aged 11 while in Spain with his mother and grandfather, but turned up in a mountainous area of southern France last week.

Batty was found in good health walking near Toulouse by a delivery driver.

He told the Sun tabloid in an interview published on Friday that he had chosen to leave his mother and grandfather as he was fed up of drifting around Europe with them.

"I realised it wasn't a great way to live for my future," said the teenager, who is back under the legal guardianship of his maternal grandmother in Oldham, northern England.

"Moving around. No friends, no social life. Working, working, work and not studying. That's the life I imagined I would be leading if I were to stay with my mum."

The teenager told French investigators that he had lived in a spiritual community centre focused on "work on the ego, meditation and reincarnation".

He said they never stayed more than several months in the same place.

"She's a great person and I love her but she's just not a great mum," Batty told the Sun, referring to his mother Melanie Batty.

He added that she was "anti-government, anti-vax" whose catchphrase was "becoming a slave to the system".

"I had an argument with my mum and I just thought I'm gonna leave because I can't live with her," Batty said.

He told the newspaper his grandfather, David Batty, was still alive, after French investigators reported that he had died six months ago.

Batty also said he had only been walking for two days when he was found, not the four that he had told French police.

He said he lied to investigators to try to protect his mother, who he believes is planning to go to Finland, and his grandfather.

Batty added that he was going to be "busy studying and catching up," and that he hopes to eventually work in the technology sector.