Police did not identify the young man but said he left home in his own car on Wednesday for the village of Nifud Qanah, north of Hail. The youngster  then failed to return home.

Police warned people not to go off the beaten track and avoid difficult and deserted routes. They also recommended people to tell their families before leaving home and the routes that they intend to use.

The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice also arrested a number of foreigners for setting up a bootlegging factory in Hail on Saturday.

The factory had been set up close to Al-Ghanam gas station, east of the city. A spokesman for the commission said they found 331 bottles (1.5 liters each) of alcohol, another 195 large barrels that had been filled with a fumigated substance and were ready for distilling, and a 580-liter barrel of alcohol.

Members of the commission confiscated the equipment used for brewing the alcohol; this included 19 gas cylinders, 10 pressure pots, 45 pieces of equipment used for distilling, 16 hoses and two cartons of yeast. The commission said this was probably the largest alcohol factory they have ever discovered in the area.