By Tass

Copyright tass

HONG KONG, September 18. /TASS/. Anton Alyoshin, a Russian man who is passionate about marine photography, rescued a tourist from mainland China who had gotten lost on Lamma Island in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region after local rescuers had been searching for him for four days. As Alyoshin told a TASS correspondent, he discovered the lost tourist while photographing seascapes from a small catamaran near the island.

“I was passing about 500 meters from the southern tip of Lamma Island when I heard a quiet whistle. Then, I saw a man with a plastic whistle waving his arms at me. I had read in the local press that Hong Kong rescuers were searching for a missing tourist, so I realized this was an attempt to attract attention. I thought this might be him,” Alyoshin said.

He noted that the southern part of Lamma Island, located about five kilometers from Hong Kong Island, is covered with dense vegetation, making it easy for an outsider to get lost. “I approached the rocks where the man was standing. It’s difficult to reach the shore there. I wanted to tell him, ‘Don’t worry. Wait here. I’ll get help.’ But he was so scared that he didn’t want me to leave, so I took him with me. After he climbed onto my catamaran, I started moving away from the shore. It was quite difficult because of the wind shadow; the wind was very weak and the surf was breaking on the rocks. It took some effort, but everything ended well,” the Russian said.

It turned out that the lost tourist did not speak English and that Anton did not know Chinese. Still, they understood each other perfectly. Alyoshin gave the rescued man water and food, then called his girlfriend, Maria, who alerted the local police. By the time Alyoshin and his companion reached the shore, ambulance doctors, police, and rescuers were waiting for them. “This is the beach near the power station on Lamma, known as Power Station Beach. The police and doctors were already there, and the rescued man was immediately taken away in an ambulance,” the Russian photographer added.

Earlier, Hong Kong newspapers had reported that Zheng To, a 52-year-old tourist from mainland China, had gone hiking on Lamma Island the previous Saturday. When he did not return to his hotel the next day, his colleagues raised the alarm, and emergency services began a search operation on Sunday. Local newspapers published information about the missing person and asked for help from anyone who knew where Zheng To might be. Rescuers scoured the entire island for several days, and local media published updates on the search. Last Wednesday, the missing tourist was rescued by a Russian man.