British family-of-12 are rescued by Italian police after following sat nav into fast-flowing river on holiday
Quick thinking Michael used his mobile phone to
alert police who were able to pin point his exact location using the
sophisticated trace system which tracks a callers exact spot by
satellite - although it still took more than three hours
to reach them because the spot was so isolated.
Lucky escape: The couple are pictured on their
holiday (Tania in the front in a white top, with Michael at the back in a
blue polo shirt) alongside their children and the team that rescued
them
'It was all cut up and littered with rocks - it
certainly wasn't a road - and at the end was this river which was going
quite quick and that's when I knew something wasn't quite right and I
started to get worried as didn't know how we would
get out.'
Tania called the couple's eldest son Ben, 19, who
had stayed in Britain and he alerted police via 999 but in the meantime
Michael had met two locals out walking and they and called local
officers who came to the family's rescue.
Michael added: 'I'm so glad that couple were passing
and managed to help us out. Luckily for us they spoke English and they
called the police but it still took three hours before we were back up
on the main road. We were taken to the police
station and the children were given chocolates and we were put on the
the right road.