ANTALYA, Turkey
Three foreign students who went missing last week in Antalya, southwestern Turkey, have been found alive and well.
British citizen David Mackie, 21 and two companions – Dutch duo Frisko De Vries, 21, and Merije De Groot, 21 – went missing on Jan. 14 when they were last seen on Turkey’s 540-kilometer “Lycian Way” hiking route.
The three were spotted Monday around 9:50 a.m. local time by a police helicopter.
The Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency said in a statement on Monday that the trio was found when the authorities traced the signal of a mobile phone used by one of the students to call for help.
Deputy Governor of Antalya, Serdar Cevheroglu, told reporters that the students were transferred by helicopter to be reunited with their families.
Cevheroglu said that the trio looked to be in good health and would be sent to a district medical facility and later to Antalya hospital.
The trio had come to Turkey as exchange students and are enrolled in Istanbul’s Bogazici University.
