The Greek Hero Who Rescued 10 Trapped Hikers After Taiwan Earthquake

Dimitris Belbas, a Greek tourist in Taiwan, saved 10 hikers from a gorge after the recent earthquake, according to a report in Taiwan News.

Belbas was hiking on a trail at the landmark Taroko Gorge with his family when the earthquake struck on April 3.

Greek man helps hikers after Taiwan earthquake

Speaking to Greek TV on Monday Belbas said that a total of 11 people, including him and his two family members, were trapped.

He described how rocks began to fall and landslides occurred, closing the passages through the canyon. When he stopped and made sure everyone was okay, he looked for stranded hikers. He located a family of five with three children and three more women whom he eventually led to safety.

“I have experienced the 1981 earthquake in Athens, but I have never experienced an earthquake like the one in Taiwan before.

“It was like a war scene, there were explosions from the landslides, commotion, and dust that reduced vision and made breathing difficult(…) It was a horrifying experience,” he emphasized.

Belbas had rescue experience and set up lead ropes to help hikers pass through trail sections piled with rocks.

The people he had helped rescue expressed their gratitude by hugging him, and some shed tears, the report in Taiwan News notes. They were brought to Silks Place Taroko and airlifted from the area.

Hundreds remain stranded

Over the weekend more than 600 people remained stranded in various locations, three days after the island’s strongest earthquake in 25 years.

Four people remain missing on the same Shakadang Trail in Taroko national park, famed for its rugged mountainous terrain. Search and recovery work was set to resume after being called off on Friday afternoon because of aftershocks.

At least 12 people were killed by the magnitude 7.4 earthquake that struck on Wednesday morning off Taiwan’s east coast, and 10 others were still missing.

More than 600 people – including about 450 at a hotel in the Taroko park – remained stranded, cut off by rockslides and other damage in different areas. However, many were known to be safe as rescuers deployed helicopters, drones and smaller teams with dogs to reach them.

On Friday, rescuers freed nine people trapped in a winding cave popular with tourists called the Tunnel of Nine Turns in the island’s mountainous east, while locating two others who were feared dead.

“I kept praying and praying,” said a woman evacuated from the cave, adding that the earthquake had sounded like “a bomb”.

Among the four missing on Shakadang Trail were a family of five. The two bodies found on Friday were a man and a woman but they had not yet been identified, according to Taiwanese media reports.

In the city of Hualien, authorities allowed residents to enter a building with a crumbling facade in 15-minute intervals so they could retrieve their belongings.