Badly equipped injured tourist fetched by SAR teams
The National Coastguard Helicopter inspects the site where the man was located.
Several rescue teams were called out last night in a complicated rescue operation to fetch a man who had broken his leg in a mountain above Ísafjörður in the West Fjords.
"This was a really challenging situaion," says rescue team leader Eggert Stefánsson to mbl.is. Five local rescue teams took part in the search.
The man, a tourist, was travelling with three more men, also tourists. The men had strayed off a popular hiking path and had climbed up some 600 metres. The injured man was hit by falling rocks and broke his ankle badly. When rescue teams finally got to him he was in a lot of pain and stuck on a small ledge where he couldn't move.
A national coastguard helicopter then transported the man to a hospital in Reykjavik.
Stefánsson says to mbl.is that the men were very poorly equipped. "They were actually not equipped at all, no warm clothes, no hiking boots, no climbing material or anything. So it was absolutely ridiculous."
He adds that they're lucky nothing more serious happen. "Im also grateful that our rescue team workers didn't get injured. There was a lot of rockfall in the area. Rocks fell all around them."
Five local rescue teams took part in the search.
