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Swedish ten-year-old shows outdoor smarts after going missing in mountains

A ten-year-old boy who went missing in Sweden's Jämtland mountains and sparked a major search operation involving 30 mountain rescuers has explained how his dramatic day unfolded.

Swedish ten-year-old shows outdoor smarts after going missing in mountains
The missing child was eventually spotted waving from a rock in a river by a helicopter. Photo: Stina Stjernkvist/TT

Dogs patrols, several helicopters and mountain rescuers hunted frantically for ten-year-old Sixten on Sunday after he was separated from his group at around 10am on the trail that his family was following.

“I went ahead down the path and lost it,” he explained to local newspaper Östersunds-Posten.

READ ALSO: Missing Swedish ten-year-old found after major search operation

When the reporter asked him what his thoughts were when he couldn't find the path, the young Swede showed he already knows a thing or two about where to go if you get lost while hiking:

“Near water, so I went to the nearest river I could hear”.

Following running water downhill is one method of trying to find help if lost in mountains as roads and civilization tend to lie in that direction from a hill.

And Sixten was standing on a rock in the river waving when one of the search helicopters spotted him on Sunday evening.

Asked if he would go hiking again in the future, the relieved young walker wasn't so sure. “It's pretty nice to not have to be out there,” he admitted.