VIENNA: More than 100 German school children and teachers had to be rescued, most of them airlifted to safety, after getting stuck on an Alpine hiking trail, described online as a “classic after-work tour,” police said Wednesday.
Dozens of rescuers using two helicopters had to extract the 99 students aged 12 to 14 and eight teachers Tuesday after the path they were on became increasingly difficult and it started to rain, they said.
Two pupils within the group, from the southwestern German city of Ludwigshafen, had slipped, suffering minor injuries, and some were panicking, a police statement said.
The teachers alerted the emergency services.
Police said the group had checked online and had believed the trail in Vorarlberg state in western Austria would be easier than it turned out to be.
“Due to a query in an Internet search engine, the teaching staff decided on a route that was no longer signposted,” police said in the statement.
The challenging route was “described on the Internet as a classic after-work tour,” it added.
“The path is no longer in official tour guides... it was relatively difficult and exposed,” state police spokesman Wolfgang Duer told AFP.
“The unusual part was the amount of people having to be rescued.”
100 school children rescued while hiking in Austrian Alps
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100 school children rescued while hiking in Austrian Alps
- Dozens of rescuers using two helicopters had to extract the 99 students aged 12 to 14 and eight teachers
- Due to a query in an internet search engine, the teaching staff decided on a route that was no longer signposted
Egypt’s grand museum begins live restoration of King Khufu’s ancient boat
- The 4,600-year-old boat was built during the reign of King Khufu, the pharaoh who also commissioned the Great Pyramid of Giza
CAIRO: Egypt began a public live restoration of King Khufu’s ancient solar boat at the newly opened Grand Egyptian Museum on Tuesday, more than 4,000 years after the vessel was first built.
Egyptian conservators used a small crane to carefully lift a fragile, decayed plank into the Solar Boats Museum hall — the first of 1,650 wooden pieces that make up the ceremonial boat of the Old Kingdom pharaoh.
The 4,600-year-old boat was built during the reign of King Khufu, the pharaoh who also commissioned the Great Pyramid of Giza. The vessel was discovered in 1954 in a sealed pit near the pyramids, but its excavation did not begin until 2011 due to the fragile condition of the wood.
“You are witnessing today one of the most important restoration projects in the 21st century,” Egyptian Tourism Minister Sherif Fathy said.
“It is important for the museum, and it is important for humanity and the history and the heritage.”
The restoration will take place in full view of visitors to the Grand Egyptian Museum over the coming four years.
