A hiker survived on two muesli bars, foraged berries and creek water for two weeks while lost on a remote Australian mountain range, police said on Wednesday.
Hadi Nazari, a 23-year-old medical student from Melbourne, went missing on Dec. 26 when he separated from two hiking companions to take photographs in the Kosciuszko National Park in the Snowy Mountains in New South Wales state.
He was rescued after he approached a group of hikers on Wednesday afternoon, telling them he was lost and thirsty, Police Inspector Josh Broadfoot said.
Photo: AFP / New South Wales Police
Nazari had traveled more than 10km across steep and densely wooded terrain from where he was last seen, Broadfoot said.
A major land and air search had been launched the day Nazari went missing. More than 300 searchers were involved.
He was reunited with his two hiking friends on Wednesday before he was flown to a hospital for a medical assessment, Broadfoot said.
Nazari told police he had been “walking from morning until night,” Broadfoot said.
“He seems well: Amazing,” Broadfoot told reporters. “This is the 14th day we’ve been looking for him. For him to come out and be in such good spirits and in such great condition, it’s incredible.”
“There are some creeks up there, and he said he’s been finding water where he could and foraging for food where he could, in terms of berries. At one point, he said he found a couple of muesli bars in a hut, but other than that — 14 days and that’s very little food,” Broadfoot said.
Ambulance Inspector Adam Mower said that Nazari only needed treatment for dehydration.
“He’s in remarkable condition for a person who’s been missing for so long,” Mower said.
The national park surrounds Mount Kosciuszko, which is Australia’s highest peak at 2,228m.
Weather conditions are mild during the southern hemisphere summer.
Searchers had been optimistic that Nazari would be found alive. He was an experienced hiker equipped with a tent. Searchers had found his campfire, camera and hiking poles in the previous few days, suggesting that he was continuing to walk.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including