Boy remains lost after one week in glacier park

An eight-year-old boy remained missing for the seventh day at a scenic spot in Sichuan province on Friday despite local rescue efforts.

Some 500 rescuers had tried in vain to locate Wen Jingyao after repeatedly searching parts of the Hailuogou National Glacier Forest Park in Luding county.

His parents said they would make their own efforts to look for their son as well.

Two relatives from his home city of Shiyan as well as Wuhan in Hubei province had arrived in Hailuogou to join them in their own search.

Wen’s mother, surnamed Li, said on Friday that she and her son were at a scenic area in Hailuogou with a friend of hers on Aug 2. The son was walking more than 10 meters in front of his mother and disappeared on a curved road where vision was blocked by trees, Li said.

When the mother passed the trees, she saw a small shallow river in front of her that had to be crossed by stepping on stones, and her son was nowhere to be found.

Before her son was missing, he donned a jacket, dark blue jeans and rain boots, carrying no water, food or communication tools, Li said.

Soon after Li reported the case to the management committee of the park, the committee gathered more than 200 people to search parts of the park where the boy might be. But no traces of his whereabouts were found.

“My family has also sought help from three rescue teams in Ya’an (Sichuan province). Each has searched parts of the park for one day and failed to find my son,” Li said.

Only an underground river below a glacier is yet to be searched. The family is considering buying an underground detector to search the river, she said.

Li said her family was grateful to all the rescuers who had tried their best.