Förster on rescuing the missing eight-year-old in the Czech Republic: »An unbelievable feeling«

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Search operation with a happy ending: A helicopter was deployed on October 11 near the mountain Čerchov

Photo: Miroslav Chaloupka / imago images / CTK Photo

Julia, who was missing for two days in the border area of ​​the Czech Republic, is still in the hospital, according to a police spokesman, but she is "relatively well".

She was in a so-called warming bed overnight because she was hypothermic after the two cold nights in the forest.

"It doesn't show any external injuries," said Josef Weindl from the Upper Palatinate Police Headquarters.

"She speaks and is so far inconspicuous."

The girl from the greater Berlin area disappeared late on Sunday afternoon while hiking with her family in the Bavarian-Czech border area.

The parents had lost sight of the girl, her six-year-old brother and a nine-year-old cousin below the mountain Čerchov in the Bohemian Forest and called the rescue workers.

At first they only found the brother and the cousin.

Julia was found by forester Martin Semecky at the end of a long search - in a piece of forest with younger vegetation that was just outside the official search radius.

"She was sitting in the tall grass about ten meters away," the forester told the dpa news agency.

When he said the girl's name, she nodded her head.

“It was an incredible feeling, these emotions cannot be described in words,” says Semecky.

Around 1,400 rescue workers on duty

The police had previously reported that Julia was completely exhausted in a bush.

What happened to the girl during his time in the forest will probably only be found out later - if at all.

"We didn't want to burden them with questions," said the forester.

A total of around 1,400 rescue workers from Bavaria and the Czech Republic took part in the search in the area between the cities of Waldmünchen, Furth im Wald and Domazlice (Taus).

bbr / dpa