San Giovanni a Piro (Italy) (AFP)
Italian rescuers began on Monday to recover the body of Simon Gautier, a 27-year-old French hiker found dead in a ravine nine days after injuring himself in southern Italy, authorities said.
Members of the alpine rescue have been watching the body found Sunday night, and the delicate operations to rebuild it began at dawn.
In this steep area where the cliffs plunge into the sea in the municipality of San Giovanni a Piro, about 200 km south of Naples, the rescuers planned to put the body on a stretcher and bring it down to help ropes to a small beach below.
From there, a Coast Guard star must retrieve it and carry it to the small port of Scario for delivery to the authorities.
An autopsy should be conducted to examine the causes of death, in particular to determine whether a faster and more massive mobilization of relief could have saved him.
Starting on Thursday, August 8 for several days of solo trekking along the coast, this 27-year-old art history student, who had been living in Rome for two years, called for help the next morning, explaining to be broken both legs by falling off a cliff, but without being able to say where he was.
It was not possible to locate his phone and it was only after a strong mobilization of his relatives and calls in the media that testimony made it possible to restrict the vast area of research and that experienced reinforcements arrived on the spot. .
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Sunday evening expressed his "sadness" and thanked the Italian authorities "who mobilized to find him".
On Sunday, nine days after the disappearance of Simon Gautier, they were a hundred specialists - firefighters, alpine rescue, dog teams - with a helicopter and drones.
It was finally with a pair of binoculars that a member of the alpine rescue team spotted a white plastic bag. Hurry on the spot, a team discovered below the backpack of the young man, then his body lifeless.
© 2019 AFP