Swedish man survives two months trapped in snow-covered car

A man was pulled alive from a snowed-in car on a deserted forest road in northern Sweden where he had been stranded and without food for at least two months in freezing temperatures.

“We received word yesterday (Friday) that a person had been found in a snow-covered car deep in the woods, more than 1.5 kilometres from the main road,” Ebbe Nyberg, a duty officer in the northern Vaesterbotten county told.

A man on a snowmobile had noticed the top of the car on the deserted and snow-filled forest road, not far from the northern town of Umeaa, just south of the Arctic Circle, and after clearing off some of the snow had peered inside.

“He saw movement and realized there was probably a person in there and called the police,” Nyberg said, adding that rescue services and an ambulance that had been belted to drive on the snow had rushed to the scene. They were amazed at what they found: A man in his mid-40s huddled inside in a sleeping bag “in really bad shape,” starving and barely able to move or speak.

Nyberg said it was unclear exactly how long the man, who is from the central Swedish town of Oerebro, had been stuck, but pointed out that the car must have been driven to the deserted spot “before it began snowing in the autumn.”

“He says himself he has been without food since December, so we think he must have got there around then, or perhaps earlier, in November,” he said, pointing out that temperatures in the area have recently plunged as low as -30C. “It’s just amazing he’s alive!”

The man, who had not been reported missing and who has yet to say how he got stuck, appeared to have survived on nothing but snow since mid-December. After his rescue, he was rushed to the Norrlands University Hospital.