Dutch Diplomat rescued in Amazon rainforest

A Dutch diplomat and his son have been rescued by Brazilian police after being lost in the Amazon rainforest for three days.

Ilko Minev, the Dutch Consul in Brazil's Amazonas state, and his son Denis Minev, were among a missing group of five people who went canoeing on Saturday in a forest some 107 km away from Manaus, the capital of Amazonas. They were expected to be back by Sunday afternoon.

Relatives of the Minev family called police on Monday after the group failed to return as scheduled. A rescue search was subsequently conducted.

On Tuesday evening, a police helicopter found the Consul and other two people under the guidance of their smoke signs. According to police officers, they were just three kilometers away from a road.

The Consul's son and another one were rescued a day later near a river. They were in better physical conditions and had left the group to go down the Preto River on their kayak to search for help. They had GPS devices and satellite telephones with them, but failed to work them out due to the dense vegetation that surrounded the group.

Source: Xinhua