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The recluse, who suffered from severe depression, was eventually declared dead in 2010.

Carlos Sanchez Ortiz De Salazar mysteriously disappeared in 1995 at the age of 26.

I shot JFK from the grassy knoll: Mafia hitman claims to be...

I am Spanish, my name is Carlos and I have been here since 1997

But two terrified mushroom pickers said they stumbled across his camp in a nature reserve on the Maremma coast in northern Tuscany.

The two men described finding a man with "a dirty face and large beard" and ran back towards the footpath in fear.

The foragers returned hours later with a forest ranger and were greeted by the mysterious loner.

Dr Salazar, a former psychiatrist from Seville, Spain, told the foragers he did not want to live among people and would leave his hiding place now it had been discovered.

The hermit, who was living in a tent, showed them his passport and said: "I am Spanish, my name is Carlos and I have been here since 1997."

The mushroom pickers contacted a Spanish missing person's association who managed to trace Mr Salazar's parents after a month.