By James Redmayne
SYDNEY (Reuters) – An Australian student missing for two weeks near the country’s tallest mountain was found on Wednesday, after surviving by foraging for berries, drinking water from a creek and finding two muesli bars left behind by other hikers, police said.
Hadi Nazari, a 23-year-old university student from Melbourne, went missing from his group of friends on December 26 in the Kosciuszko National Park.
Nazari was found on Wednesday afternoon by a group of hikers who alerted the authorities, police in the state of New South Wales said.
“This is the fourteenth day we’ve been looking for him and for him to come out and be in such good spirits and in such great condition, it’s incredible,” NSW Police Inspector Josh Broadfoot said.
The student was in “really good spirits” with no significant injuries, he added.
More than 300 people had searched for Nazari across rugged bushland, police said. The national park is home to the 2,228 metre (7,310 foot) Mount Kosciuszko.
(Reporting by James Redmayne in Sydney, writing by Alasdair Pal; Editing by Kate Mayberry)
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