Rescuers use mobile phone signal to locate lost hikers

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Published: Sunday December 12, 2010 MYT 2:44:00 PM
Updated: Sunday December 12, 2010 MYT 5:59:08 PM

Rescuers use mobile phone signal to locate lost hikers

By SYLVIA LOOI and IVAN LOH

IPOH: Rescuers, depending on a mobile phone signal, tracked down six hikers lost in Gunung Cabang in Kampung Pos Slim near here and brought them down safely after more than seven hours. The hikers were weak and dehydrated but alive after getting lost on their way to the top on Saturday.

They are Michelle Kong, Jaenne Kong, Yaul Ken Men, Desmond Koh, Wu Xiang and Teo Guon Yew, all in their 20s and 30s. The search and rescue team began hiking up the mountain at about 11am Sunday after police managed to contact one of the lost hikers on the mobile phone.

Simpang Pulai police station officer-in-charge Chief Insp Mohd Uzir Ismail said the group was told to stay put and wait for the rescuers. "They told us that they had run out of water and are left with only biscuits," he said, adding that they were also suffering from fatigue and leg cramps.

"We relied on one of the hiker’s mobile phone signals to locate them," he added. The six - four men and two women - were part of a 10-person group, which started hiking at 9am on Saturday. The group split into two for the trek up. One group – with one member who was an experienced hiker - successfully reached their campsite.

Police received information from the Simpang Pulai fire and rescue department that the six went missing at 11.30pm on Saturday. The rescue team, consisting of personnel from the Fire and Rescue Department, district office, Civil Defence Department and General Operations Force, entered the hill at 11am, located the hikers and brought them out by nightfall Sunday.

 

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‘Missing’ hikers accounted for


Monday December 13, 2010

‘Missing’ hikers accounted for

By IVAN LOH and SYLVIA LOOI
[email protected]

IPOH: Despite spending the night in the jungle, a group of hikers were in high spirits after rescuers brought them out of Gunung Cabang in Kampung Pos Slim, 30km from here. One of them, Michelle Kong, 21, suffered from fatigue and leg cramps and was the first to be carried out by rescuers from the deep jungle at about 6pm yesterday.

Out of the woods: A rescue officer carrying Kong out of Gunung Cabang in Kampung Pos Slim yesterday.

Kong smiled with relief when she was lifted into an ambulance that took her to the Raja Permaisuri Bainun Hospital. Nine other hikers made their way out of the jungle 20 minutes later. The 10 friends had set out from here at 9am on Saturday to hike up Gunung Cabang.

At about 11.30pm, the police received information from the Simpang Pulai Fire and Rescue Department that six hikers had gone missing and a search party immediately went to look for them.

The six were Kong and fellow hikers Koh Yin Ming, 25, Yaul Ken Min, 26, Teo Guan Yew, 19, Jen Jie Kong, 36, and Liu Yen Yen, 33. The other four in the group were Lee Kooi Zoo, 52, Woon Boo Siong, 26, Keoh Hiew Geok, 42, and Ng Peak Hun, 34.

Lee, who organised the hiking trip, said the six were not lost. “They were feeling fatigue and one of them had leg cramps,” said Lee, who was the only one who had experience of hiking up Gunung Cabang. “They were just too tired to carry on,” he added.

Koh, a quantity surveyor and a first time hiker to Gunung Cabang, said his group felt tired and could not catch up with the four others during the journey. “So we decided to stop halfway to rest and camp for the night,” he said, adding that they were not scared and had packed enough camping materials for the night.

Ipoh OCPD Asst Comm Azisman Alias said they managed to get in touch with one of the hikers early yesterday through a mobile phone. “They told us they had ran out of water and were left with only biscuits,” he said, adding that the group was advised to remain at their location.

He said all hikers were located near a river at about 1.30pm. ACP Azisman said most of them were exhausted and slowly trekked out of the jungle. He advised hikers to the hills to inform the police or the fire station before going for their trip.

 

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Re: ‘Missing’ hikers accounted for

if they are within cell phone coverage, they couldn't be that far off.