Search for 81-year-old hiker missing in Tuen Mun enters third day

He, the 81-year-old mainland Chinese tourist who went missing while hiking on the MacLehose Trail in Tuen Mun on Saturday.

Photo: Handout The search for an 81-year-old mainland Chinese man who went missing while hiking on Hong Kong’s MacLehose Trail entered its third day on Monday, with a veteran mountaineer calling for better promotion to raise visitors’ safety awareness.

A team comprising rescuers from the Fire Services Department, Government Flying Service, Civil Aid Service and police continued its search for the man, surnamed He, who went missing on Saturday while on a hike with his wife along Section 10 of the trail.

According to a social media post by the Hong Kong Guardians volunteer rescue team, the couple began their hike at around 8.20am at the trail entrance near Hoh Fuk Tong College and walked for an hour along Section 10 towards Tai Lam Chung Reservoir in Tuen Mun.

A source said that an hour into the hike, He grew tired and decided to rest at a pavilion, parting temporarily with his wife as she continued without him.

He carried only a little water and a mobile phone without roaming service.

Not long after, it began to rain heavily and an amber rainstorm warning came into effect at 9.50am, lasting until 4pm.

According to the source, the wife took shelter at another pavilion for an hour.

She made her way back to find her husband at 2pm, but got lost and arrived at their meeting point two hours later.

He was nowhere to be found and the wife later returned to their son’s home in Tuen Mun.

Their son called police.

A monk who was hiking on the same trail that day said on Monday that he had encountered the pair before the man went missing, and that both appeared to be in good shape when he saw them.

But he described the thunderstorm as so intense that even holding an umbrella was dangerous, as the trail had become a slippery “waterfall”.

The monk found one of the man’s shoes on the trail near Kwan Tai Temple, heading in the direction of the reservoir, on Sunday morning.

Veteran mountaineer Conway Leung Nim-ho said Section 10 of the MacLehose Trail was not particularly challenging, consisting mainly of concrete paths, and that the risk of getting lost was low.

Leung noted that the surrounding woods were not dense, so rescuers would have been able to spot the man if he had fallen down a slope.

Rescuers search for the missing man on Section 10 of the MacLehose trail on Saturday.

Photo: Handout He speculated that He could have slipped i

原文链接: 南华早报