Missing Dutch man rescued from Phetchaburi forest after three days
A missing 79-year-old Netherlands national has been rescued by villagers in Tha Yang district Phetchaburi province on Friday.
Franciscus van Rossum's Thai wife had filed a missing person report on August 31 at Tha Mai Ruak Police Station in Phetchaburi.
Van Rossum was reportedly found lying in a puddle in a national forest area connecting Phetchaburi’s Kaeng Krachan and Tha Yang districts, about 800 metres from the main road.
He was reportedly exhausted, mildly disoriented, and had minor scratches and mosquito bites on the body.
Villagers who found him said they were returning home from catching bullfrogs when they found Van Rossum’s motorcycle parked in the forest. They searched around the area and found the man lying in the puddle, so they helped him up and contacted police, who later brought him to a nearby hospital for a check-up.
Ratchata Chanwichit, 61, reportedly said that her husband rode a motorcycle from their house in Cha-Am district to get some beer from a shop in Tha Yang district on Tuesday and had not returned until dark. She called him on his mobile phone and he answered that he was lost in the woods, before the line was cut due to heavy rains in the area, prompting her to file a missing person report.