Two teenagers rescued after shortcut leaves one seriously injured

Two 17-year-olds were rescued from steep terrain on Katrin mountain in Bad Ischl on Saturday evening after one fell about 10 metres and was seriously injured, ORF reported.

The friends, from the Vöcklabruck district, had taken the Katrin cable car up the mountain at about 4pm. After stopping at an inn near the mountain station, they began descending about an hour later. They took a shortcut along the cable car route, but became trapped in rocky, difficult terrain as darkness fell.

Shortly after 7pm, one teenager fell over a rock ledge and landed on a rocky shelf. His mobile phone was damaged in the fall. The other climbed down to him and managed to call his father briefly before his phone battery ran out.

After several hours, mountain rescuers heard the teenagers calling for help from the cable car and spotted the light of a lighter. They rappelled from a cabin to reach them. The difficult rescue, made harder by steep scree slopes and loose rock, continued until after midnight. The seriously injured teenager was handed over to emergency services in the valley.