62-year-old missing

“Rocket watching” on New Year’s Eve saved a life

Going out to admire the rockets - that saved the life of a 62-year-old man in Gschwandt. The man with severe dementia had - once again - gone missing from the home in Gmunden on New Year's Eve and a large-scale search operation was unsuccessful. He had been gone for nine hours when "rocket showers" discovered him shortly after midnight: Injured after a fall and already severely hypothermic, but alive!

The 62-year-old would probably not have survived the icy night and would have shared the fate of a man from Linz (76) and a man from Vöcklabruck (85). The two men with dementia had been reported missing around Christmas and were found frozen to death days later.

The emergency services divided up the search area in Haag/H.(Bild: laumat)

Ended well
In contrast, the search for a dementia patient (84) in Haag am Hausruck on New Year's Day ended well. The pensioner was discovered unharmed in a garden.

In the Bohemian Forest, a tracked vehicle was deployed to rescue a 58-year-old woman. She had seriously injured her ankle while hiking and was unable to continue.(Bild: Bergrettung Böhmerwald)

Cross-border
A cross-border rescue operation was launched in the border triangle of Upper Austria, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and the Steinernes Meer when a woman from Mühlviertel (58) suffered a serious ankle injury during a hike. With the help of rescuers from Bavaria, she was located and finally brought to safety.