A supposed afternoon walk during a country school week in Kleinwalsertal ended on Wednesday night for 99 students and eight teachers from Ludwigshafen with mountain distress and a rescue by helicopter.
Accompanied by their teachers, the young people between the ages of 12 and 14 set off on a hiking route in the Austrian holiday region at around 3 p.m.
The escorts apparently relied on that.
Stephen Lowenstein
Political correspondent based in Vienna.
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In fact, the route from Hirschegg in the Kleinwalsertal to the Walmendingerhorn led over a route that, according to the authorities, “requires a head for heights, sure-footedness and experience in alpine terrain”.
Moreover, the narrowest part, the Heuberggrat, was wet and slippery because of the previous rains.
Part of the group decided to turn back.
Two students fell and suffered minor injuries.
Other children panicked.
One of the escorts then made an emergency call.
70 participants were rescued by helicopter using dew rescue and evacuation sets, the others descended accompanied by the mountain rescue service.
"Several students were exhausted, hypothermic, soaked and completely distraught," said the police.
The case will be forwarded to the public prosecutor's office in Feldkirch for criminal assessment after the conclusion of the investigation.
A mountain rescue spokesman told the Austria Press Agency that two helicopters were available.
The students were brought down the mountain in groups of three.
"You can work out how many times you had to fly." The spokesman strongly advised against planning routes based solely on descriptions found somewhere on the Internet.