Missing tourist saved by light on mobile phone

A YOUNG German tourist was saved by a light on her mobile phone after she went missing in Co Donegal.

The tourist, 24, went missing around Slieve League after going to take photographs on Saturday evening in an area known as the Pilgrim’s Path.

She had been camping in the area with her partner and had arranged to meet him again at a local car park in Bunglass. When she failed to turn up as darkness fell, the young man alerted the Donegal Mountain Rescue Services around 9pm.

As many as 40 rescue personnel, including the Sligo Mountain Rescue team and the Killybegs Coastguard, joined the search.

The young woman was eventually found by the Killybegs Coastguard at around 12.30am in a very wet, cold and disorientated state. She had wrapped herself in her sleeping bag.

Brian Murray of Donegal Mountain Rescue said the woman was very lucky to have been found. “There was no mobile phone signal in the area and she was lucky that the coastguard service managed to see the light from her phone,” he said.

“She was very cold and wet and she was also carrying a slight ankle injury which she had picked up.

“She had been heading for the lights of Teelin and became disorientated. She had no torch with her and was in the dark.

“It was a very wet night, although it was mild, and thankfully the Killybegs Coastguard managed to spot the light from her phone,” he said.

The woman did not require hospital treatment.