A three-year-old boy has been found unconscious and with signs of severe hypothermia a day after he went missing in a village in Russia’s Arctic tundra.
The child – identity not disclosed – was reportedly walking along with his brother and sister when he suddenly disappeared in the village of Kustur, Eveno-Bytantaysky National District, Republic of Sakha, Russia, on Friday, 21st July.
Scared he might freeze to death under the harsh temperature conditions of the small village located within the Artic Circle, where average annual temperatures vary between -12 and -6 degrees Celsius, his siblings immediately alerted their family.
Media revealed that the boy’s relatives and friends immediately initiated a search to find him after his siblings told them he was nowhere to be found in the area.
Some time later, more than 50 locals out of the village’s 766 inhabitants joined the search, but were soon after urged to turn to the Sakha’s rescue service for help in the early hours of Saturday, 22nd July.
Republic of Sakha’s Rescue Service said in a statement obtained by Newsflash: “Eight rescuers of the Verkhoyansk search and rescue team of the State Budgetary Institution of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and six employees of the Verkhoyansk Ministry of Internal Affairs took off from the village of Batagay on a helicopter of the airline ‘Polar Airlines’.
“Arriving at the place, searches for the child from the air were immediately organised.”
They continued: “An hour and a half later, on a tip from the air search group, the child was found six kilometres [3.7 miles] away. from the settlement of the village of Kustur in a swampy area, by a ground search party.”
The boy was reportedly found unconscious with severe hypothermia, and was immediately flown to a local hospital by helicopter crews.
Representatives from the rescue group said: “He was given first aid, but the boy did not regain consciousness.
“After the inspection, it was decided to transport the child by L-410 sunflight to Batagai, from there the child would be urgently delivered to [the city of] Yakutsk.”
He is currently in critical condition, medics claimed.
