Sydney: Mother An Australian said on Tuesday that she felt “happy” after her three-year-old son was encountered alive, picking up the muddy water from a dense indoor terrain after a three-day hunt who seized the country.
The police sent a helicopter with thermal imaging equipment, but failed to detect the child in the early hours after it was reported for the first time disappeared on Friday morning in the remote ownership of his family in the eastern state of New Wales of the South, 150 kilometers (90 miles) northwest of Sydney.
The rescue and police teams, including some on horseback, searched the weekend before finally the location of the child, AJ Elfalak, during a helicopter sweep in the area on Monday.
“He is with us. He is safe and well and healthy. That’s all that matters,” his mother Kelly Elfalak told television journalists on Tuesday at the family house in the town of putty.
“I want to thank everyone, I’m very fortunate,” she said.
AJ had some scratches and contusions, said the mother. “Apart from that, he is perfect.”
The police said dense terrain complicates the child’s search, which he was seen a few hundred meters (yards) from his house.
“The young man was sitting in a small stream and was drinking water, he was able to capture the attention of the pilot and the crew member”, New South Wales Police Superintendent Brad Monk to the press after the rescue on Monday.
“There is no doubt about emergency services during that search passed closely by the little boy who may even have been sleeping at the moment, there is a lot of area where he could not have been hidden,” he added.
The video images taken from the police helicopter showed that the child sitting in a puddle of cloudy water in a rocky creek, wearing a light color top and the use of hands to take the water to his mouth and face .
New South Wales Officer Ambulance Gerry said Pyke Spirits of the child collected after he met with his parents. “Everything he wanted to do was eat, and he stuck at approximately three slices of pizza and a banana so he is pretty good.”
The child’s search, who said the police have autism and does not speak, monopolized the headlines throughout Australia.
“What a relief, I can not imagine the traumatic that this experience has been for AJ and the parents,” said Scott Morrison Prime Minister in a message on Twitter on Monday.
Thanks god. What a relief. I can not imagine the traumatic that this experience has been for AJ and her parents. I’m glad to know that he is safe. Thank you all in our @nswpolice and paramedics.
Apparently, the child was served at the nearby Maitland Hospital before returning home. The hospital refused to comment.
A spokesman for the New South Wales police said they were investigating the circumstances surrounding the child’s disappearance.