An engineer sparked a huge search over Lantau yesterday after making an SOS call - to Beijing.
Alfons Mathis, who works at a Beijing steel plant, did not know how to contact local emergency services so he called his firm in the capital on his mobile phone.
Mr Mathis, 38, from Austria, was trapped on Lantau Peak for several hours in the hottest part of the day after he and two fellow countrymen visited the Big Buddha at Po Lin Monastery.
He could not give colleagues in Beijing an exact location, saying only that one of his hiking companions had taken a different route downhill and they had planned to meet at Tung Chung station. The colleague called police in Hong Kong, prompting teams of police and firemen, assisted by a helicopter from the Government Flying Service, to comb the hillsides around Lantau Peak for the three hikers.
The helicopter, hovering over Nei Lak Shan, spotted Mr Mathis and one of his friends waving and a crewman was lowered to pick them up.
They were flown to Siu Sai Wan and taken to Eastern Hospital where Mr Mathis was treated for mild dehydration and discharged.
