HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — A German tourist who went missing in a national park teeming with wild animals in northern Zimbabwe has been found alive and in “good health” along with his rental car three days later, a spokesperson for the national parks agency said Tuesday.
Tinashe Farawo with the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority said Andreas Hoberg had last been seen buying a drink at the park shop in Matusadona National Park before going for a game drive around 3.30 p.m. on Saturday.
He failed to return by 6 p.m., when all game drives should end, and the car rental company failed to locate him on its GPS tracking system, Farawo said.
Authorities deployed a helicopter, vehicles and sniffer dogs to scour the remote 1,400-square-kilometer (540-square-mile) park that is home to lions, buffalo, leopards, elephants “and all the dangerous animals you can expect in the bush,” Farawo said.
The spokesman said the telephone network is poor in the area and he was yet to get more information about the tourist’s age, whether he was with others or how deep in the park he had ventured.
“We were gravely worried. We are happy he is well,” Farawo said. “He says his car developed a mechanical fault. It’s a white car, so we were hopeful we would find it.”
