Three French Women Stranded Overnight in Kep Forest Saved
Three
French women found themselves stranded in Kep National Park on Sunday
night after losing their way in the forest, the day after a 200-strong
search team was deployed to find a French family that became lost inside
the Angkor Archaeological Park in Siem Reap province.
Kep
provincial governor Ken Sotha said Clara Povchelon, 25, Amme Sara
Satin, 25, and Lea Eloty, 24, traveled to a pepper plantation in Kep
from their hotel in neighboring Kampot province on Sunday morning before
visiting the national park that afternoon.
The
women were dropped off at the entrance to the park by a tuk-tuk driver
at about 5 p.m. and told him to return an hour later, he said. But by 7
p.m., seeing no sign of the women, the driver alerted provincial police,
who mobilized a search team.
“We
used about 60 provincial police officers, military police officers and
park conservationists to search for the three women until 1 a.m., but
our forces were not able to find them because it was so dark,” Mr. Sotha
said.
Authorities resumed
their search at 7 a.m. on Monday and soon spotted the women walking
toward the park’s exit, he said. “They became lost after walking and
turning along the many roads inside the national park.”
The
women, who were not carrying food or water, told authorities that they
had walked in the direction of the sun, leading them to the exit, Mr.
Sotha said.
“Authorities invited them to eat breakfast, but they refused, so we took them to their hotel in Kampot province.”
Kep
provincial police chief Ing Sam Ol said his officers had come within
300 meters of the women during their initial search and were possibly
prevented from reaching them by ancestral spirits living in the forest.
“Maybe
the spirits did not allow us to meet them as they wanted them to stay
overnight so the mosquitoes could bite them because the spirits were
angry that they walked in and invaded the forest,” he said.
About
200 officials were dispatched to the forests around Kbal Spean mountain
in Siem Reap on Saturday morning in search of a French family and their
tour guide who became stranded the night before after straying from
well-trodden paths. They were spotted by a helicopter at 8:30 a.m.
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