'I'm alone in the world': Forest boy's first words
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Your support makes all the difference.The English-speaking teenager who appeared in Berlin after claiming to have lived in the woods for years told security guards he approached at the city hall that he was "all alone in the world".
The boy's identity and story have mystified German authorities since he first appeared on 5 September, telling officials that he had been living in a tent in the woods with his father. The boy speaks fluent English and only a few words of German, and says he has spent the last five years wandering in the forest until the death of his father forced him to look for help.
A civil servant who was present when the boy arrived at city hall said the boy told security guards there: "I'm all alone in the world, I don't know who I am. Please help me," The Daily Telegraph reported. The female office worker had been called to help translate for the boy, who was "calm, not scared, but quiet."
"He didn't look at all like a vagrant – he didn't smell, he was clean, his clothes were clean but he simply didn't know anything about who he was," the woman said.
"He said he needed help, that he didn't know where to go and had no one in the world to look after him. I tried to find out details about where he was from but he just didn't know," the woman said.
The boy – who says he doesn't remember where the family came from – claims he followed his compass north after his father recently died following a fall in the woods. After walking for two weeks, he says, he arrived in Berlin.
He told authorities he only remembered the name his father called him by – Ray, according to media reports – and not his last name. The boy, said to be around 17 years old, appears to be in good health and police have issued a Europe-wide appeal to try and determine his identity. However, police said they were not immediately releasing any photos of the boy.
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