French teenager missing in Bali during trek, search underway

A search has been underway for a week on the Indonesian island of Bali to try to find a 14-year-old French teenager who disappeared during a trek on Mount Batukaru, we learned on Sunday from the French consular services in Jakarta.

“We have asked the Indonesian authorities to continue the search beyond the statutory seven-day period and the search is continuing.”Elsa Rochier, French consul in Jakarta, told AFP. “Significant resources are being mobilized”she added. The teenager, named Thibault, on holiday in Bali with his mother and two brothers, who live in the Paris region, had climbed Mount Batukaru, one of the two highest peaks on the island, during the day.

Hurt

During the descent that same day in the late afternoon, the boy and his 16-year-old older brother, “both slipped and fell into a ravine”explained to AFP a family member contacted in France by AFP. The eldest, who did not fall in exactly the same place, was able to go and call for help the next morning, telling his brother, stuck on a ledge, not to move while waiting. Not seeing her two children arrive, the mother had raised the alarm that same evening.

After a day of walking, the older brother was finally able to alert the emergency services, who, upon arriving at the scene, did not find the teenager, said this family member, adding that the missing young man did not appear to have been injured in the fall and had communicated verbally with his brother during the night. “The rescue operation continues”Kadek Donny Indrawan, who coordinates the Indonesian search team in Buleleng, in the north of the island of Bali, told AFP. “Around 30 people are mobilized”he added, specifying that “So far, the search has yielded no results.”.