British consular staff are working with police in Berlin trying to identify an teenager who walked out of a German forest speaking English and knowing only his first name.

The boy, called Ray, presented himself to the Berlin authorities last week, saying he followed his compass north to reach the city after the death of his father with whom he had roamed through the woods for about five years.

A Foreign Office spokesman 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.

Berlin police said they had approached Interpol to see if the boy matched any missing person reports. Officers will not know the results of the inquiry until Monday.

Detectives are going over everything Ray has told them to establish a picture of his background and biography.

The teenager told youth workers that his father, whom he called Ryan, had died two weeks ago and he had buried him in a shallow grave covered with stones.