Miracle rescue of a toddler who went missing in a Siberian mire

Little Nikolay (Kolya) Barkhatov, 3, was found in a state of deep shock sitting on a dry hillock in the middle of a bog in the north of Omsk region. 

The exhausted toddler fell asleep a minute one of the rescuers picked him off the ground.

Kolya was badly dehydrated and covered with mosquito bites after wandering alone for two days and spending two nights at +5C temperature with only a light set of clothes. 

His parents took the boy out for a traditional August berry gathering together with other family members, and thought it was safe to leave him inside a locked car after he got too tired and asked to rest. 

‘We were only away for 10 minutes, we didn’t want to wake him up’, his distraught father Stepan told the police. 

More than a thousand people were searching for Kolya non-stop for about 40 hours

The family spent several hours searching for Nikolay after he went missing from the car in the early evening on 13 August, and then raised alarm with police and volunteers.

More than a thousand people took part in a massive search, with police, search and rescue dogs and horse-riding squads, volunteers and even helicopters with night vision equipment deployed non-stop on a very difficult boggy terrain. 

A recording with Kolya mother’s voice was played out loud, asking him not to be scared of the rescuers. 

Finally today a group of volunteers reported that the boy was found alive in high grass some 3 kilometres away from the place where he went missing.’

‘This is a miracle! We were in tears of joy when we heard about him found unharmed!’ - said one of the volunteers. 

The boy was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was put on a drip to regain body fluids. He will stay for a while in the intensive care unit.

Little Nikolay’s family will be questioned by police on the exact circumstances of his disappearance. 

FOUND ALIVE! Video of the moment when Kolya was found in the middle of the bog courtesy Vasily Matusya