Dramatic Rescue in Alicante: Elderly Man Spends Four Hours Trapped After Falling Down Benacantil

Four hours motionless after a fall at the foot of the Santa Bárbara Castle. This was the situation experienced by a 78-year-old Nordic man until his rescue in the early hours of Monday.

The man slipped down a three-meter-high embankment on the slope of Mount Benacantil near the La Ereta parking lot. Due to the impact, he was immobilized and lost his phone in the darkness.

At 4:30 am, the elderly man managed to find his phone and call the emergency number 112, which alerted the Local Police of Alicante. By then, four hours had passed since the fall.

Following the English instructions of this Nordic citizen regarding his location, the Operational Unit of the Night Service (UOSN) of the Local Police, in collaboration with the Speis firefighters, managed to find the injured man at 5:30 am after an hour of searching.

The man suffered minor injuries, such as cuts and abrasions, as well as exhaustion and dehydration. He was treated by an ambulance at the scene of the fall.

After receiving the 112 alert, a dozen Local Police officers in Alicante began the search for this man from different access points to Mount Benacantil, via Virgen del Socorro and Vázquez de Mella streets, while Speis firefighters deployed across Serra Grossa.

After more than an hour of searching, one of the deployed patrols located the injured man showing signs of exhaustion and dehydration in a hard-to-reach spot on the slope adjacent to Jaime II Avenue, near the La Ereta parking lot.

The man had fallen down a three-meter-high embankment and was unable to get up due to the impact, although he did not suffer serious injuries.

Once located, he was transported to the access road to the castle, where he was treated by medical services for the cuts and abrasions caused by the fall and later taken by officers to his accommodation.