UPDATE: All runners have now been accounted for.
Rescue workers are frantically searching Hong Kong’s highest mountain, Tai Mo Shan, after a Japanese trail runner failed to return from a 100-kilometre race in freezing conditions.
Hundreds of runners took part, but only one failed to return after the event was abandoned just before daybreak yesterday, on Hong Kong’s coldest day for nearly 60 years.
The search apparently started just after noon today when the race organiser contacted police.
“A Japanese competitor has not been accounted for. We are still looking for him,” a police officer told the SCMP.
Dozens of personnel from the police and fire department have been deployed along the route.
“A search is underway in the section 8 of MacLehose Trail in Tai Mo Shan,” a fire department’s spokesman said, adding that they are also trying to secure a helicopter to help with the search.
Yesterday, around 100 so-called “frost tourists” had to be rescued from Tai Mo Shan after the paths became too slippery to traverse safely.
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