Police activity on Wednesday morning drew masses to the spot in Portimão, which is within steps of the city’s hospital and sits alongside a main road linking Portimão to the A22 motorway.

Fifteen-year-old Rodrigo Lapa's body was found at 9.10am by a GNR officer who had been scouring the land, a GNR spokesperson confirmed.

The spot is just a few hundred from the boy’s front door.

In recent days helicopters had been spotted circling over the area, having been drafted in to help in the search for the missing teen.

His mother, Célia Barreto, reportedly identified the body and was seen being taken in a police car to the PJ station in Portimão, though it is not yet known in what capacity.

The teenager was reported missing over a week ago on Monday 22 February, after failing to return home from school in nearby Estômbar (Lagoa).

His mother claimed she last saw her son when he left the home where he lived with her, his baby sister and stepfather, that morning at 7am for school.

Speaking to newspaper Correio da Manhã a friend of the teen’s claimed Rodrigo had not been at school the Friday before either.

It has since emerged that the boy’s stepfather, a Brazilian national, had left for Brazil that same Monday, but it was claimed by family members that the trip had been planned some time ago.

By 11.30am on Wednesday (2 March) a protective police cordon erected around the spot where Rodrigo’s body was found had been removed, indicating that the body had likely also already been removed and taken for autopsy.

The post-mortum exam is expected to give some indication as to how the boy died. PJ police are investigating.

For now, according to reports, police are discarding theories of suicide and are probing other scenarios such as kidnapping, murder, accidental death and if the boy ran away from home on purpose.