By Le Figaro with AFP
Posted 2 hours ago, Updated 1 hour ago
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A 67-year-old man sent distressed WhatsApp messages to his family before they lost contact. The search continues and an investigation has been opened into a “worrying disappearance”.
An injured British hiker has been missing in the Pyrenees since Tuesday. The 67-year-old man had gone for a walk in the Pyrenees. His car was found in a car park at the Col d’Escots. In the evening, on the family WhatsApp group, his relatives received a series of messages all broadcast at the same time, indicates France 3 Occitanie. “Help”, “Help”, “I fell and I can’t move”, “I can’t get up”, “I can’t walk,” wrote the father of the family. Then nothing.
The family immediately alerted the emergency services. The search began Wednesday morning with two helicopters and a dog team. But five days after his disappearance, there is still no trace of the hiker. The search continues to locate him and an investigation has been opened for “worrying disappearance”the Foix prosecutor’s office told AFP on Sunday. Gendarmes accompanied by Saint-Hubert dogs are inspecting the area near the Guzet ski resort in Ariège.
Amateur hiker
A retired doctor living in Lot-et-Garonne, this amateur hiker was on holiday in the Pyrenees. His wife, Anne Lyons, came to the scene with her daughter to be as close as possible to the search. “During the day, someone saw him near the parking lot of the Aubé pond, near the Gérarc cirque. He was tired, but he wanted to continue.”she explained to the microphone of France 3believing that her husband had “probably injured in an accident”.
If her husband enjoys the walks of “two to three hours”il “doesn’t know the mountain well”the mother also says. “During this afternoon, something happened”. His son, for his part, posted a wanted notice on social networks. “My father is a 67-year-old Englishman with grey curly hair and glasses,” he described on Facebook. “He went hiking in the Pyrenees recently, alone, camping. I don’t have any specific details about what he was wearing.”
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