Relief swept Vietnamese social media and news feeds on Saturday after news that a little boy lost for 5 days in a tropical jungle has finally been found.
The search team of police, volunteers and soldiers reached 150 people combing the mountains in northwestern Yen Bai province.
Five-year-old Dang Tien Lam was playing in a stream with his siblings when, after wandering up a hill, he probably became disorientated and looked for his playmates on the wrong slope.
In the tropical jungle, one only has to walk a few hundred yards to lose all sense of where to go, and this small mistake was the first chapter in a five-day ordeal that ended with the boy being found under a cassava bush by one of the farmers.
His clothes were completely soiled and he himself was too weak to stand. 52-year-old farmer Ly Van Nang said:
The child told me that when he got lost, he could not find his way home, and the more he walked, the more he could not find a way out.
Local news reported the boy survived by eating leaves, wild fruits and drinking water from a stream.
Police commenting on the story congratulated the boy on his safe return and said it was a “miracle” that he survived and was found. Vietnam is a forested country and Yen Bai is a heavily wooded province.
