Major search – two young hikers disappeared in the Karawanks

“The two youths are taking part in a reconnaissance excursion of more than 20 people,” said the Villach Mountain Rescue Service, who had flown their rescue dogs to the area of ​​operations by the “Libelle Steiermark” police helicopter. The group travels in different day stages in the Alpine region and wanted to hike in teams of four from Rosenbach over the Karawanken to the Sava Valley.

Large contingent of helpers alerted
The two young missing persons started as a couple on Wednesday morning and did not arrive at the agreed meeting point in Slovenia in the evening. The search by the comrades on Thursday morning was unsuccessful and so the alarm was raised. The police in St. Jakob, the Alpine Task Force of the Carinthian Police, the mountain rescue team in Villach, the avalanche and detection dog squadron Mountain Rescue Team in Carinthia, the Austrian rescue dog brigade in Carinthia, the rescue dog squadron of the Samaritans and the volunteer fire brigade in St. Jakob im Rosental alarmed.

The police helicopter “Libelle Steiermark” from Graz was asked to take over the shuttle service for mountain rescue, mountain rescue dogs and the alpine police. The Carinthian police helicopter was deployed to fight the forest fires in Slovenia. Over the course of the afternoon, the search groups explored possible routes the youths would have used to cross the Karawanks.

At the same time, Slovenian police and mountain rescue services searched for the missing persons in their area of ​​operations. The search was carried out until nightfall, unfortunately without success so far. The ARA air rescue helicopter supported the rescue teams with a shuttle service back to the valley. The search was called off after dark and continues on Friday.