Austrian mountain rescuers said they managed to save a Syrian teen who was discovered injured and suffering from severe hypothermia, as new smuggling routes have been set up to work around increased border controls in central Europe.
Rescuers on Sunday airlifted the 14-year-old on Sunday, who was found “severely hypothermic and barely reactive” at 12,00 meters altitude in “partly snowy, steep, wet, and densely wooded terrain.”
A hiker had noticed calls for help from the boy, who complained he suffered from “severe pain,” and alerted rescue services.
Authorities are attempting to discover how the boy arrived in the mountains near the border with Slovenia.
A refugee family was rescued in the same area south of Carinthia earlier this winter after becoming lost in the mountains on a suspected new smuggling route, according to police.
Asylum applications in the EU rose to more than one million last year, the highest in seven years, with Syrians and Afghans, the leading nationalities seeking asylum.
Germany received about 29 percent of the total, the highest number in the EU, in 2023.
