It was a race against time. Eight-year-old Julia disappeared for two days, two nights in temperatures around freezing point. The probability of finding them somewhere in the confusing area between Bavaria and the Czech Republic became less and less. But on Tuesday lunchtime the redeeming news came: Julia is alive.
The girl was found after hours of searching, according to police reports, near the Czech town of Česká Kubice. The eight-year-old will now be cared for medically, said the Czech police on Twitter on Tuesday with. The police headquarters in Upper Palatinate confirmed this information. “The girl was found on the Czech side,” said Josef Weindl, spokesman for the Upper Palatinate Police Headquarters, the SZ. “She is very hypothermic, but according to the circumstances, she is fine. She was taken to a hospital.” Rescue workers who were involved in the search for her discovered the student from Berlin.
Lost sight of while playing
It was also the cold that worried the emergency services the most. “Every hour is important,” said Weindl der Passauer Neue Presse said on Tuesday morning.
Julia disappeared on a hiking excursion late Sunday afternoon. The family from the greater Berlin area hiked to the Czech mountain Čerchov (Schwarzkopf) in the Bohemian Forest (Český les; Upper Palatinate Forest) at the weekend.
On the way back, the eight-year-old disappeared. The parents had lost sight of the girl, her brother, and her cousin while they were playing. The couple’s son and nephew were eventually found, with the eight-year-old daughter missing. According to a report by the Daily mirror from the Berlin district of Pankow. She was looked after by psychologists.
“It is a difficult terrain, all around is deep forest”
Around 1,400 emergency services from the Czech Republic and Germany – police officers, mountain rescue workers and firefighters – had searched for the student with helicopters and dog squadrons. In addition, there were 115 search dogs, police helicopters and drones, as announced by the Upper Palatinate police headquarters.
The police did not assume a crime and suspected that the eight-year-old was lost. “The terrain is difficult and there is deep forest all around,” said Czech police spokeswoman Dana Ladmanová. The area is about two kilometers from the border and five kilometers from Waldmünchen in the Cham district. The area was a restricted military area during the Cold War.
The Czech police released a video showing emergency services combing the forest in a long line. A helicopter with a thermal imaging camera was also in use. Both the Bavarian and Czech police advised volunteers not to take part in the search. “Thank you for not being indifferent,” wrote the Czech police on Twitter. “We ask you not to dare to climb the mountain, but to stay down here on the streets and in the surrounding communities to keep your eyes open, simply so as not to put yourself in danger here,” said a spokesman for the police headquarters Upper Palatinate. “Not that we might have to rescue or even look for other people from the mountain.”