British teenager goes missing while hiking in Romania

George Smyth, 18, went missing on a hike near Romania’s famous Bran Castle more than a week ago. On November 23, the British citizen started to suffer from hypothermia and exhaustion and called the emergency services.

Trying to locate him, mountain rescue services conducted searches over the next few days but were only able to locate his backpack. Inside were equipment and supplies.

“The backpack had quite a lot of equipment in it, including a sleeping bag and a tent. My colleagues even found food all around. So we don’t understand what happened and where he could have gone,” said Sebastian Marinescu, director of Salvamont Brasov, cited by The Independent.

Last Friday, November 28, Salvamont Brasov made George Smyth’s image public and asked for information at the request of his family. The young man had recently started studying at the University of Bristol, and his mother, Jo, flew to Transylvania to support the search for her son.

According to his family, he left without telling anyone that he was hiking alone. Rescuers say he set off from the Poiana Brasov neighbourhood and started hiking towards Bran, a village known for its castle suggested to be the home of Dracula. However, he reached Tiganesti Valley, where he made the call to rescue teams.

Another search party, including 20 mountain rescuers, was mobilized to look for the boy over the weekend. However, snow of up to 2 meters delayed the search. Thermal imaging cameras, sniffer dogs, and a Black Hawk helicopter were used by rescuers to reach inaccessible parts of the mountain.

"Despite sustained efforts, he has not been located so far, although search operations have been carried out daily, with resources constantly adapted to the conditions in the field,” Salvamont Brasov said.

(Photo source: Salvamont Brasov on Facebook)