Two walkers missing since mid-February in the jungle of French Guiana turned up on Thursday after having spent seven weeks living off river water, seeds -- and the meat of two turtles.
Frenchmen Loic Pillois, 34, turned up at the small town of Saul, central Guiana, at 10am.
He tipped off the authorities that his friend Guilhem Nayral, 34, was about six hours walk away to the south and the emergency services found him and airlifted him to safety four hours later.
"We found him stretched out on the ground, completely exhausted, very thin, dehydrated, but not injured," said Martin Andre, deputy commander of the local police.
"When I took him in my arms, he burst into tears," he added.
Nayral is being treated at Cayenne hospital, where a spokesman said he was being treated for extreme fatigue.
Pillois, who arrived a little earlier, was interviewed by local police before also being admitted for treatment. Although he seemed weak, he was strong enough to get out of the helicopter without help.
The only thing he said was: "It's really hot."
Local officials opened an investigation in the middle of last month over their disappearance and about 40 police officers searched the jungle for three weeks last month.
The search was scaled down to just eight men toward the end of last month.
The two walkers had headed off in the middle of February for the Grand Kanori rapids, on the banks of the river Approuague, in the heart of Guiana.
They had only intended to stay there 10 days, but had become lost despite their maps and compasses.
Pillois told the police that they survived the seven weeks drinking river water, eating seeds and the flesh of two turtles that they had managed to kill.
Pillois' wife said from Toulouse, in southwest France, that she was never really worried about the pair.
"Five years ago, they had already walked around Saul, with a friend who was an expert in insects," she said.
"He told them that if they got lost in the jungle, they could always eat certain bugs," she said.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese