Trekker rescued after going missing for 47 days in Himalayas

A Taiwanese man has been rescued 47 days after going missing while trekking in the Himalayas - but his girlfriend died three days before he was found.

Liang Sheng Yueh was discovered on Wednesday on a mountain ledge in Nepal under a waterfall, at an altitude of 2,600 metres.

The 21-year-old is now recovering in Kathmandu after being airlifted to hospital. The body of his girlfriend, 19-year-old Liu Chen Chun, was also taken to the capital.

Asian Trekking agency official Madhav Basnet, who rescued Liang, said: "We were following a river looking for them and found them in a deep area. The man was found alive but the woman died three days ago.

"They were in a deep gorge and when we did manage to get to the spot we found the man alive and we rushed to bring him back to a hospital. The man appears to be fine now."

The couple were on a trek on the Ganesh Himal trail when they were caught in a snowstorm in March and got lost.

According to Mr Basnet, they appeared to have followed a river hoping to find a village but slipped and fell over a waterfall. They landed on the ledge and were unable to climb up or down.

The couple had no guides or porters and were carrying their own food, tent and sleeping bags.

For the first two weeks they survived on food they had in their backpacks, but after that they consumed only salt and water, Mr Basnet said.

Doctors said Liang appeared to be in good health, but was "exhausted" and had lost around 30kg.

Dr Ajay Singh Thapa said: "He was suffering from severe malnutrition. His foot was covered with maggots and hair full of lice.

"Despite having to live like that for 47 days, he appears to be mostly normal."

He said the man probably survived because he was able to get both salt and water in his body.