Rescued

Mountain rescue teams were in action again yesterday, but this time it was not a false alarm. German tourist Peter Aohbech, aged 55, has to be rescued after he plunged into a river while hiking with a friend in Calvia yesterday afternoon. Aohbech and his compatriot Erhard had been staying at a Soller hotel when they set out to follow a mountain walk in a guide book which heads up in to the hill off the Puigpunyent road. The path follows the course of the Banatica water course and as they hiked along at around mid-day, the 55-year-old suddenly fell from a great high in to the river bed below, suffering two fractures and multiple bruising caused by the rocks he crashed into as he fell. The victim was unable to walk, and his fellow hiker rushed to raise the alarm and local police, firemen and ambulance services swung in to action, mounting a complicated operation. Erhard was able to guide the rescue teams in to the area where the accident had happened. Medics managed to reach the victim and confirmed that the injuries were serious, but his life was not in danger. Firemen had to manoeuvre a stretcher to the site in order for rescue teams to carry the victim down to the operation's base where an ambulance was standing by. But the return to base was a laborious task because of the narrow river bed which peters down to a width of just one metre in some points. Aohbech was finally lifted into the back of an ambulance at 3pm and rushed to a Palma clinic. Yesterday's rescue was the second in two days, on Wednesday a French women had to be rescued after she fell while hiking in Cuber.