Young man missing for eight days found alive

TEKİRDAĞ - Demirören News Agency

A young man who got lost in a nature park in the western province of Tekirdağ’s Saray district where he came from a picnic with his family has been found alive in Istanbul’s Çatalca district, 2 kilometers from the park, following intensive search and rescue efforts.

After an eyewitness called the gendarmerie following the missing report filed on July 12, the day Şehmus Ele got lost, the teams found him in the search efforts intensified in the forest in Çatalca.

Ele said in his first statement that he got lost in the woods while taking pictures.

“I left my mobile phone and other belongings in the forest to leave a trace so that I could be reached,” said Ele, adding that he ate nothing for the first four days.

“After the fourth day, exhausted, I survived by eating blackberries I found in the forest,” he added.

After his family informed the authorities, officials initiated a large-scale search, in which non-governmental organizations also participated.

Following the search made by the gendarmerie on the first day, which could not yield any results, operations, in which drones, thermal cameras and tracker dogs were used, were started with 400 people consisting of search and rescue teams from Istanbul and Tekirdağ and some volunteers.

As the result of the investigations, a mobile phone, a knife, shorts and slippers belonging to Ele were found a kilometer from where he entered the forest on the second day during the searches.

“Ele was searched for seven days by [Türkiye’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority] AFAD, the gendarmerie, police, the Coast Guard and Regional Directorate of Forestry teams under the coordination of the [Istanbul] Governor Ali Yerlikaya,” said Turan Ermiş, the district governor of Çatalca.

“The general health status of Ele, who was taken to Çatalca State Hospital for a health check, was found to be good,” Ermiş added.