Last of six foreign hikers missing in Philippines rescued / Photo: Handout - VALENCIA POLICE STATION/AFP
Last of six foreign hikers missing in Philippines rescued
Four foreign hikers who had been missing for days in a mountainous area of the central Philippines were rescued Saturday, local authorities said, a day after their two companions were found safe.
The six-man group, which included German, British, Russian and Canadian nationals, had set out on Wednesday for what was to be a four-hour excursion in an area of Negros Oriental province officials said was hit by a downpour.
"The army rescuers found them in the vicinity of the Silab hydropower plant," said Jose Lawrence Silorio, a rescue official in the municipality of Amlan, near the province's Balinsasayao Twin Lakes Natural Park.
Police identified the men as Germans Aldwin Fink, 60, and Wolfgang Schlenker, 67; Russian Anton Chernov, 38; and 50-year-old Canadian Terry De Gunten.
Philippine Army personnel found the hikers in a mountainous area thick with vegetation, said investigator Leo Gil Villafranca.
"They told the army they got lost due to the fog," he said, adding all the hikers were residents of the province.
The four were discovered at 9:44 am (0144 GMT), according to local authorities.
"Overall, they are OK, but they had minor abrasions. We wrapped one of them in a blanket because he was feeling cold. But he was eventually able to stand up on his own," Silorio said.
"They told us they survived by eating edible plants in the forest," he added.
Silorio said the group was found about 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) from where fellow hikers Torsten Martin Groschupp, 58, and Alexander Radvanyi, 63, were discovered Friday morning.
An image posted to a police Facebook page showed De Gunten, his legs bloodied, talking to rescuers inside an ambulance while Chernov lay on a stretcher wrapped in a blanket.
Police said Friday that the weather had likely played a role in the group's becoming lost on what they said was a "difficult" trail in a mountainous area the men were tackling without a guide.
"It was rainy at the time and that led to zero visibility," said Valencia police officer Henry Japay, adding there was no cell phone reception in the area.
"There's a big possibility that they stopped and took shelter when it started raining."
B.Cretella--PV
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