“We’re all immensely pleased that he’s okay . . . if you believe in miracles”
An Australian man who went missing along with two friends has been found alive yesterday after two weeks in a remote outback region in Central Australia.
Phu Tran, a 40-year-old man from South Australia, was found alive by a cattle farmer in the Palmer Valley area, south of Alice Springs, Northern Territory police told local media.
Tran, who police said survived by drinking ground water, was transported to Alice Springs hospital for treatment for exposure.
“We’re all immensely pleased that he’s okay . . . if you believe in miracles.
“I’m saying it’s a miracle anyway,” Australian broadcaster ABC quoted Superintendent Pauline Vickery as saying.
Tran’s friend Tamra McBeath-Riley was found on Sunday evening by the police during an aerial search at a waterhole east of the Stuarts Well area, south of Alice Springs.
Police said aerial searches were continuing in an effort to find the remaining missing person, Claire Hockridge, in the rough outback, where temperatures reach about 40 degrees Celsius.
The three had set out on an afternoon drive on November 19. They became stuck after their car got bogged in the bed of Hugh River.
The trio tried to free their car for three days.
They stayed together for a number of days but later separated to go search for help.
On Monday, police said they had found McBeath-Riley, 52, in good condition, having stayed hydrated by boiling and drinking groundwater found in the area.
Police were able to locate her after they found a note left inside the trio’s vehicle, which police discovered after a local alerted them about tyre tracks that indicated the direction the car headed.
