“He’s in good shape, but a little exhausted. He’s now in a helicopter and will receive emergency care; it’s been cold and he was out all night,” said Mikael Norén of the Norrbotten police.
“One of our sniffer dog teams found him northwest of Kvikkjokk, according to the information we have so far.”
A massive search party including mountain rescue specialists, police, military personnel, volunteers, and dogs had been searching for the boy since he was was reported missing early Wednesday evening.
The boy disappeared around lunch time on Wednesday and was still missing early Thursday morning.
Weather in the area had been a cause of concern for the rescuers, as the boy was lightly clothed when he disappeared.
“The temperature is a few degrees above zero and it has snowed and rained in the area,” said Norbotten police spokesperson Olle Kvarneros to the TT news agency.
The boy and his class from Jokkmokk were on a hike above the tree line and had taken a break on Prinskullen ridge, four kilometres from Kvikkjokk.
After finishing lunch on the approximately 740 metre high peak, the class was to headed back to the bus, with part of the journey requiring a boat to take them over a small stream.
When the children, their teachers, and the principle began to board the bus the checked to make sure that all the children were present, they discovered the 10-year-old boy was missing.
“He was clearly not even in the boat on the way back…the last time staff are sure that they saw him was during lunch around noon,” said Kvarneros.
“And you know how boys are at this age, you really have to keep an eye on them. I hope that he hasn’t fallen down somewhere.”
A group immediately returned to the ridge to look for the boy, but was unsuccessful.
“It’s a pretty difficult area,” said Kvarneros about the ability for an 10-year-old to find his way down from the mountain on his own.
A few hours later at 6pm in the evening the principle for Västra School contacted police and reported the disappearance.
Police and mountain rescue teams reacted quickly before night fall, calling upon all available resources, including heat sensitive cameras and two helicopters.
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