Evidence backs up castaway’s amazing story, say officials

Pacific castaway Jose Salvador Alvarenga has been ordered to rest after being hospitalised with a health scare, as a senior diplomat said all evidence so far verified his amazing story.

Alvarenga, who says he spent more than a year adrift in the Pacific, was due to leave the Marshall Islands for his native El Salvador yesterday, but officials pushed his departure back until early next week after doctors ruled he was too weak to fly.

He was admitted to Majuro Hospital on suffering back pain and swelling in his lower extremities, a hospital official said. He has since been discharged.