German backpacker found alive after 12 days missing in Australian outback

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SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australian authorities said they found a 26-year-old German backpacker “safe and well” after she had been missing in a remote part of the country’s northwest for almost two weeks.

Carolina Wilga, who vanished on June 29 from near the outback town of Beacon, about 254 km (157 miles) north of Western Australia state capital Perth, was found by a passing motorist on a road in the region on Friday, police said.

“This is a huge relief for her family and all of her loved ones,” Detective Jessica Securo said on Saturday in a media conference televised from Perth.

“To find Carolina safe and well is a fantastic result.”

Wilga was airlifted to a Perth hospital, where she was stable on Saturday, authorities said.

The backpacker was “ravaged by mosquitoes” during her time stranded in the hostile terrain and was found exhausted, dehydrated and with cuts and bruises, police said.

A large-scale search was initiated for Wilga after her vehicle was found abandoned in the state’s sparsely populated Wheatbelt region, which spans 154,862 square km.

Wilga planned to continue her travels in Australia once recovered, authorities said.

(Reporting by Sam McKeith in Sydney; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Tom Hogue)