Teenager survives six days in the Australian outback

A teenager who has been missing for six days has survived with only a bag of chips and some water in the dense bushland of the Australian state of Victoria. A police helicopter crew discovered the 17-year-old in a dry stream bed, police said.

The teenager disappeared last Friday during a camping trip with a friend near the former gold mining town of Walhalla. The place is around 185 kilometers east of Melbourne.

According to police, he walked a short distance from the campsite to a drop-off point to get more camping equipment. He was only wearing shorts and work boots and didn't have a cell phone with him. When he didn't return, his companion informed the authorities. A large-scale search operation in the region with more than 100 emergency services. sniffer dogs and helicopters began.

Because the temperatures in the region dropped significantly at night and snow sometimes even fell in the surrounding mountains, concern about the missing person grew. The police appealed, among other things, to hunters and campers to check recordings from their game cameras.

What exactly happened to the teenager is not yet fully understood. According to his mother, who was now able to hug him again, the teenager had fallen down a slope and was no longer able to move properly. So he stayed in the same place and waited for help.

According to various Australian media outlets, he had been getting by on a bag of chips and water from the stream for the past few days.

Police reported that the teenager gave a thumbs up when he saw the helicopter. "He's exhausted and can't walk, but otherwise he talks to us, smiles and is happy."

The teenager has autism. He was in good spirits and generally in good health. He was then reunited with his mother and taken to a hospital for observation.

"I'm just overjoyed that he's alive," his mother said. "And he'll never leave the house again," she joked: "He's under house arrest for life."