T

he group of hikers led by Solok Regency Legislative Council speaker Syafri Datuak Siri Marajo, which had been reported missing in the Bukit Barisan forest located on Thursday, the Padang Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) reported on Thursday evening.

'€œThe police'€™s mobile brigade [Brimob] and some 20 residents of Koto Sani village found them and promptly provided them with first aid and logistical assistance,'€ said Padang BPBD head Budhi Erwanto.

Of 21 members of the council speaker'€™s group, six suffered from minor injuries but they were all fit to walk again unaided after receiving treatment. '€œThey left with the SAR [search and rescue] team at 7:30 a.m. and are expected to reach the post in Hilalang market, Kuranji, Padang, in the evening,'€ said Budhi, adding that he was only able to contact the SAR team that afternoon.

Another team, he added, had been sent from Padang with supplies and medicine. Syafri and the other 20 members of his group were on a hike from Koto Sani in Koto Singkarak district, Solok regency, heading to Padang when they were reported missing in Bukit Barisan Forest.

There were initially 40 people in the group. They left on Saturday and were scheduled to finish the hike in two days and were therefore expected to reach Padang on Sunday after passing through a difficult track inside the dense forest.

When they failed to reach Padang as scheduled, a SAR team was dispatched and found 19 members of the party who had succeeded in getting out of the forest in Lubuk Minturun, Padang, on Tuesday.

The team was unable to locate the other 21 people, including Syafri, whose way was blocked by a river swollen by heavy rain. Head of Solok regency BPBD, Abdul Manan, said that the group was re-enacting the route taken by Indonesian fighters during the independence war as a short cut from Padang to Solok.

Manan added that Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi was once also lost in Bukit Barisan Forest for five days between Solok regency and Padang in 1999 when he was Solok regent.