A Spanish doctor has been found living in an Italian forest 20 years after he went missing. Carlos Sanchez Ortiz De Salazar, 47, was reportedly discovered with "a dirty face and large beard" by two mushroom pickers in Tuscany two weeks ago. He showed the foragers his passport to prove his identity and said: "I'm Spanish, my name is Carlos and I've been living here since 1997.

"I don't want to live among people: now that you have found me I need to get out of here."

The doctor apparently left his home in Seville in 1995 during a bout of severe depression to live as a hermit in Maremma, Tuscany. He was declared dead 14 years later after his whereabouts were unknown.

His family tried to search for him in the woods on Saturday after the foragers' discovery, but he has disappeared again. Looking at his passport, his parents told Corriere Della Sera: "That's him - that's our Carlos. He is alive and that is the most important thing."

His mother Amelia added: "We respect his will and his freedom but we're not leaving until we have held him in our arms again - even if it is just for one last time."