A ten-year-old girl from Washington, US, managed to survive in a harsh mountainous landscape for over 24 hours alone on her own.
Shunghla Mashwani survived in the rugged Cascade mountains and her ordeal involved spending a night nestled between some trees in a forest in the darkness.
Shunghai found herself separated from her 30 family members after crossing the footbridge near the Cle Elum River.
Shunghla and her family were crossing a pedestrian bridge near the Cathedral Pass Trailhead when she suddenly found herself alone and unable to locate the bridge again, according to the Kittitas County Sheriff’s Office.
The girl found herself stranded and alone as her family searched desperately for her. But with no cell service in the area, they couldn’t call for help.
‘The search area was steep, rugged, and remote, with dense trees and undergrowth cut through by the fast-running Cle Elum River,’ the sheriff’s office said.
After searching for about two hours, a passerby offered to call the police using a satellite phone from a nearby cabin.
Deputies, volunteer search teams, and other law enforcement agencies quickly joined the search efforts.
During the search, the sheriff’s office had Shunghla’s father record a message of reassurance in their native language, which was broadcasted over the search area.
Shughla said that she got through the ordeal by thinking of her family. The 10-year-old hiked down the river before seeking shelter between two trees.
‘I was trying to go to sleep in the night and then wake up early in the morning, and then I’ll find my dad and mom in the forest,’ Shunghla told KING, describing her experience spending the night alone in the wilderness.
Finally, on Monday around 3 p.m., two ground search volunteers spotted Shunghla about 1.5 miles south of where she was last seen.
Despite enduring the challenging conditions, she had only sustained minor scrapes.
‘She hiked downstream through the dense forest and spent the cold night between some trees.
‘She said she knew it was the right thing to follow the river. She proved an extraordinarily resourceful and resilient 10-year-old,’ the sheriff’s office said.
Rescuers swiftly loaded Shunghla into an inflatable rescue boat and successfully brought her across the river to be reunited with her father, marking the end of a harrowing ordeal.
When she first saw the rescuers the following morning, she explained, she was worried that they were actually trying to hurt her.
‘I think they are thieves and they’re gonna steal me,’ Shughla told KIRO 7.
It was only after they called her name and showed her pictures of her relatives that she agreed to go with them.
