Reinforcements and geographical "new data" were to help rescuers, Saturday, August 17, to find Simon Gautier, the French hiker who was injured eight days ago in a large rocky area of southern Italy.
"The search resumed this morning at 6 am and new alpine rescue teams are due to arrive," said a law enforcement official. "We are also waiting in the day for new data to try to tighten up the research area, which is very large."
A research area of 140 km²
Friday, around 9 am, Simon Gautier, who has been living in Rome for two years to write a thesis in art history, called for help with his mobile phone. According to the recording of the call broadcast by Italian media, he said he fell off a cliff and broke both legs, but could not say where he was, "in the middle of nowhere, on the side".
He hiked near Policastro, about 200 kilometers south of Naples. Lack of reliable data on the location of his phone, which no longer responds, the research area currently covers 140 km² and overflows in Calabria.
"There are very few antennas in this uninhabited region that can allow a precise location of the past call," said the head of law enforcement.
On the social networks, a friend of the young man present on the spot announced that the investigators had now "the certainty" that the hiker had left with reserves of food and water that could allow him to survive "more than 15 days ".
We now know that #SimonGautier had plenty of food and water on him, allowing him to survive more than 15 days! IT'S IN LIFE and we'll see it #poliscaro #URGENT
Héloïse Grégoire (@HeloKerr) August 17, 2019With AFP