A German backpacker who disappeared in remote Western Australia nearly two weeks ago has been found alive.
Western Australia police confirmed to local media that Carolina Wilga was “safe and well”, and she was seen getting onto a small plane accompanied by rescuers. A police spokesperson said she was being taken to receive medical treatment.
Ms Wilga was picked up by a member of the public near Beacon, a small town about 200 miles northeast of the city of Perth, on Friday afternoon, WA Today reports. She had last been seen at a general store in the town on 29 June.
Police inspector Martin Glynn told Nine News Ms Wilga was “in a fragile position at the moment”, but he expects her story of survival will be “remarkable” once she shares it.
“As you can imagine from the trauma she’s suffered over the last few days, she’s obviously been through a great deal,” Insp Gynn said.
“She has a number of significant minor injuries ... She’s been ravaged by mosquitoes.”
The 26-year-old had been missing for nearly a fortnight, and police found her van abandoned on the edge of a remote nature reserve.
Before she was found on Friday, police expressed concerns about the remote bushland in which her vehicle was found.
Insp Glynn said it appears her van had become bogged in an off-road part of a nature reserve.
“She’s used the [recovery boards] that came with the vehicle ... as it looks like she’s gone into a soft pile of mud,” he said, WA Today reported.
“She seems to have dragged some pieces of wood over to try and create a solid base to get the vehicle out but there was no luck.”
He said tourists rarely enter the “inhospitable” Karroun Hill Nature Reserve, a vast area filled with dense bushland.
According to WA Police Acting Inspector Jessica Securo, it “would be easy to become lost or disorientated in that area if you didn’t know it well.”
The German national has been backpacking through Australia for the last two years, according to police, alternately working in mining sites in regional WA and staying in backpacker hostels in Perth.
Police had deployed helicopters and planes in the ongoing search, according to local media reports, and Detective Senior Sergeant Katharine Venn said on Thursday that they were growing increasingly concerned for her welfare.
The detective said it was possible that Ms Wilga had been visiting picturesque but “very remote” tourist spots. Her vehicle was found in the Karroun Hill area, which boasts a 3,097 sq km nature reserve.
Ms Wilga’s mother, Katja, had pleaded for information about her daughter on social media.
The German backpacker is the second person to have gone missing in the area in the last 12 months.
Barry Podmore, 73, has been missing since December after going gold prospecting at Karroun Hill, according to the ABC.
His vehicle was found abandoned about 40 km north of Beacon by police in May, but no trace of the man has been found.
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