Chinese police use drone to rescue man lost in Xinjiang desert
Flying machine used to track down man who went missing for over an hour after going sightseeing in Taklimakan Desert without food or water
Police in western China used a drone to find a man who had wandered into a desert and got lost, local media reported.
The 30-year-old, who was not identified, and his friend had been driving through the Taklimakan Desert in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, when they decided to stop to have a look around, Beijing Youth Daily reported on Wednesday.
As one man wandered off into the wilderness his friend stayed in the vehicle. After about an hour, the man in the car became concerned for his friend’s safety and called the police.
Police from nearby Qiemo county responded but after an initial search on foot failed to find the man, they called in a drone operator.
“He didn’t have anything to eat. There was no water, only a mobile phone, but there’s no mobile phone signal in some areas in the desert,” a police official was quoted as saying.
He said temperatures in the area sometimes rose to more than 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit).
The report said the man disappeared about 3pm on Sunday and was found about an hour later after the drone searched an area of about an 8km (five mile) radius.