A 27-year-old reindeer herder who went missing last month in Russia's far eastern Chukotka Peninsula has been found alive despite not eating for 16 days.
Officials in the town of Egvekinot said on January 8 that the man, whose identity was not disclosed, was traveling to a nearby village on a snowmobile on December 21 when he lost his way in a heavy blizzard.
Rescue groups had been searching for him since then, ultimately finding him some 200 kilometers away from his destination.
“He was found, he was alive and well, but lost weight because he had not eaten for 16 days,” Ria Novosti quoted an Egvekinot official as saying.
They said the man managed to survive the freezing conditions by burning materials he found in an abandoned wooden cabin.
Recent average temperatures in the region, which lies along the Northern Sea Route and is the easternmost peninsula of Asia, have ranged around minus 30 degrees Celsius.
The man is now on his way to his wife and two children and will be examined by medical personnel in his village, the officials said.
