Five children aged between 3 and 11 stranded in a car since Friday in a remote part of the Kimberleys in Australia’s North West have been rescued.
They were travelling with their father and another man when their car broke down north of the Ringer Soak Community on the unsealed Duncan Highway.
The rescue was done in two stages by helicopter with the five children and their father brought to Halls Creek.
Five children and a man have been choppered to Halls Creek after being stranded on a flooded Kimberley track pic.twitter.com/DxUwInVMWb
— Ten News Perth (@TenNewsPerth) January 21, 2014
The group had been trying to drive to Halls Creek from Darwin but torrential rains made the area almost impassable. To survive they have been been boiling water from a flooded creek.
One of the men walked about 50km – more than a marathon – before being found yesterday afternoon by a youth worker.
Police spokesman Sam Dinnison says the group had limited food and two of the children had run out of asthma medication.
The father of the five children swam across a river and found staff from a nearby station. He then swam back across the river to head back to the children.
A search plane found the car today.
Police said using a helicopter was the only way to get the group out of the area.
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