An Australian backpacker missing in the Malaysian jungle
has been found alive, but emaciated and covered in
leeches.
Andrew Gaskell was found by Malaysian search and rescue crews in
the Mulu national park on Tuesday. He said he had survived by
drinking water and eating wild ferns in the jungle.
He was reported missing to Tasmania police when his family did
not hear from him after he set off hiking in the Sarawak park, with
poor mobile coverage, from 18 October.
Gaskell got lost after eschewing local park regulations
requiring that visitors take a guide, district police
officer-in-charge Gabriel Marudi said. Around 40 rescue personnel
launched a search for him.
The 25-year-old is being assessed in a Malaysian hospital,
Tasmanian police said in a statement on Tuesday night.
"By the end of it I was quite concerned I wouldn’t make my 26th
birthday," he said in a radio interview, where he apologised to his
parents.
Gaskell said he got lost after descending a mountain at sunset
into bushland where there were a lot of different trails. "I ended
up spending that whole night just wandering," he told ABC
radio.
"If I had a GPS or navigational equipment I would have been
fine. That was extremely stupid of me, really."
Gaskell said his feet were injured and it was very difficult to
walk. "My nails are infected and I’ve been bitten by a lot of
things."
He was found conscious and able to speak to his rescuers, but
emaciated and with leeches on his legs, the Borneo Post
reports.
His mother Elizabeth Gaskell said she "felt amazing relief" when
her youngest son phoned to tell her Andrew had been found.
"I spoke to my son [Ben] first, he said ‘he is alive, weak but
alive’," Gaskell told the Hobart Mercury.
"I’m really thankful to all the volunteers that helped and I’m
so thankful to God he’s safe," she said in a statement to Sky
News.
Gaskell was thin and weak and had an injured foot but was flown
by helicopter to the town of Miri and was expected to recover,
Marudi said.
"It was very lucky for him to be found still alive after such a
long time," said Marudi, adding he had no further details on how
Gaskell survived.
Mulu National Park is a Unesco world heritage site famed for
some of the world’s largest caves, striking limestone karst
pinnacles above ground and dense jungle.