It should be a nice hiking excursion – but then eight-year-old Julia disappears without a trace between Bavaria and the Czech Republic. Then finally comes the redeeming news.
Waldmünchen / Cerchov – After a nerve-wracking search in the Bohemian Forest between Germany and the Czech Republic, the missing eight-year-old Julia from Berlin was found.
“She is alive, she is hypothermic and has been taken to the hospital,” said a spokesman for the Upper Palatinate police headquarters on Tuesday. According to the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior, a Czech forester discovered the child around noon. Where Julia is now medically cared for, the authorities did not want to say with reference to privacy.
The eight-year-old from Berlin disappeared late on Sunday afternoon while hiking with her family in the Bavarian-Czech border area. The parents had lost sight of the girl, the six-year-old brother and a nine-year-old cousin below the Cerchov mountain and called the rescue workers. At first they only found the brother and the cousin. The police did not want to say anything about why the children had separated. It was speculated that they played an orientation game or got into an argument. Perhaps it was also a moment of inattention.
Around 1,400 rescue workers took part in the search
Around 1,400 rescue workers from Bavaria and the Czech Republic took part in the search for Julia in the area between the cities of Waldmünchen, Furth im Wald and Domazlice. The Bavarian Red Cross in Cham even spoke on Facebook of the largest cross-border search campaign that has ever taken place in the region. “It is a miracle that we have succeeded in finding the child,” it continues.
The helpers were on duty for two days and two nights. They were supported by 115 search dogs, police helicopters and drones with thermal imaging cameras, as announced by the Upper Palatinate Police Headquarters. Because of the impassable area with many rocks and crevices as well as dense tree cover, the large-scale operation had turned out to be arduous. In addition to the police, the fire brigade, mountain rescue service, foresters and employees of the Czech National Park Bohemian Forest who are familiar with the area were also involved. An Alpine police force even traveled from southern Upper Bavaria.
The search was a race against the clock, also because of the freezing temperatures that approached freezing at night. The police assumed a “life-threatening and serious danger” for Julia. On Tuesday morning it had been said that the girl’s chances were falling by the hour.
Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) thanked all the helpers after the success: “We mobilized everything, riot police, dog units, helicopters with thermal imaging cameras, drones and search teams from the Alpine Task Force. In the end it was a bit of luck that a Czech forester involved in the search found the girl. ”Dpa
