Race against time to find British teenage hiker missing in Romanian mountains after he made desperate call for help
Rescuers are in a race against time as they continue the desperate search for a British teenager who vanished in Romanian mountains after he made an urgent call for help.
His mother, Jo Smyth, has now flown to Romania after the alert was issued for her son George, saying he was exhausted and suffering from hypothermia.
The alert was sounded by the Salvamont Brasov rescue service on November 28, alongside a photograph of the missing 18-year-old.
It pleaded with anyone who may have seen him to contact authorities immediately.
George has been missing since the evening of November 23 despite extensive daily search operations that have been repeatedly hampered by dangerous weather and heavy snow conditions.
The Salvamont Brasov rescue said his family had begged them to distribute his picture publicly in the hope of generating new leads.
Rescue teams said the teen set off last Sunday morning from Poiana Brasov with the intention of walking to the village of Bran, famous for Bran Castle, Dracula’s rumoured home.
According to the route information they were able to piece together, he managed to reach the Tiganesti valley where he contacted the 112 emergency line requesting assistance due to exhaustion and hypothermia.
Picture shows George, the young man sought by the Mountain Rescue in the Bucegi Mountains, Romania
A large-scale search operation is underway in the Bucegi Mountains for the British tourist who went missing a week ago
George asked for help, as he was exhausted and suffering from hypothermia
Salvamont officials added that he was wearing the jacket shown in the released photograph.
They urged anyone who saw him or who has any relevant information to immediately contact Salvamont Brasov or report to the nearest police station.
On Sunday evening, when the teenager asked for help, they said he was already in an advanced state of fatigue and hypothermia, triggering an overnight search that continued until morning without success.
He made the call from a valley situated at more than 6,562 feet above sea level.
His parents were able to locate his phone and were shocked to discover where he was.
Searches resumed in the following days, with crews scouring the mountain terrain on foot and using all available equipment.
Rescuers later found a rucksack with equipment in the area he had indicated.
The bag has been handed over to police, but no further trace of the teen has been found.
The missing teen’s mother said: ‘He left his university in the United Kingdom on Sunday without telling us, to go hiking alone.
‘His phone last had signal in a remote mountain area. He made a distressing call to 112 on Sunday evening. The teams found his backpack in the same place from where he called for help within a few hours.
‘I flew to Romania immediately and we are trying to support the search teams as best we can.’
Salvamont officials urged anyone who saw George or who has any relevant information to immediately contact Salvamont Brasov or report to the nearest police station
Hypothermia can set in within minutes if a hiker is unprotected or exhausted in the months of November and December
Officials said the operation has been severely hindered by the harsh winter conditions now gripping the Bucegi Mountains, which are part of the high Carpathian range.
November and early December routinely bring rapidly changing weather, sudden fog banks, freezing winds and unstable snowpacks, and hypothermia can set in within minutes if a hiker is unprotected or exhausted.
Poiana Brasov and Bran, the teen’s planned start and end points, are connected by long, forested trails that rise sharply into high alpine sections, areas that become particularly perilous during late-autumn cold snaps.
He crossed the Diham-Tache Ionescu area but the fierce weather and the difficult route made the hike difficult.
Rescuers stressed that despite their continuous efforts since Sunday and the use of all available technology, no additional clues have been found that could lead them to George’s whereabouts.
In a first for local rescue operations, Salvamont Brasov even deployed a Black Hawk helicopter to fly intervention teams quickly to the most inaccessible parts of the massif.
A drone equipped with a thermal imaging camera was also used as teams with sniffer dogs retraced George’s route.
‘The mountain rescuers retraced the alleged route taken by the young man, but unfortunately they were unable to identify any new conclusive elements,’ Sebastian Marinescu, director of Brașov Mountain Rescue, told Observator.
‘He was a sporty and strong young man and travelled a lot with us and his friends. He loved the mountains. We hope and pray that he somehow survived despite all the odds. Just the thought of a life without him is unbearable,’ said his distraught mother.
The search will continue in line with weather developments and operational safety, after it was temporarily suspended due to avalanche danger.
