Hesse
“The parents are overjoyed”: Two-year-old disappears in the forest – and is found again hours later
A police officer carries the wanted two-year-old in her arms after he was found
© Jacob Schröter / DPA
Happy end to a missing person search: a two-year-old ran away from his father in the forest in Hesse. After seven hours of uncertainty and worry, then came the redeeming news.
What a horror idea for parents: a father has… Hessen lost his two-year-old son in the forest. “The man looked around for a moment and when he looked back at his son, he had disappeared,” said a police spokesman in Fulda.
At around 4:45 p.m. – just half an hour before sunset – the boy got lost in the forest. More than 200 emergency services went on the search. In the search area: forest, meadows and two streams – “but mostly smaller watercourses,” according to a police spokesman the “Fuldaer Zeitung” said.
Search for two-year-old in the dark
According to the police, search dog teams and drones with thermal imaging and – given the darkness – night vision cameras were used. Citizens also supported the search, for example by searching properties and sheds.
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He was finally found around 11:30 p.m. lying on a dirt road, around four kilometers away from where he disappeared. The boy was found on Sunday evening “soaked and slightly hypothermic” near a country road near Alheim and, after a medical examination, was handed over to “his happy family,” the police in Fulda said. He is otherwise fine.
Parents and Hesse police relieved
“The parents are overjoyed,” said Esther Jaekel, head of the Rotenburg police department, the “Bild” newspaper. For the police, too, this is the best result imaginable.
Further sources:Press release from the East Hesse police, “Fuldaer Zeitung”, “Picture”.