Date:06/08/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/08/06/stories/2007080660952200.htm

International

Boy rescued from Dead Sea

JERUSALEM: An eight-year-old Israeli boy was found alive after spending six hours floating at night in the Dead Sea, rescue workers said on Sunday.

The boy went missing on a family trip to the Dead Sea, one of Israel’s most popular tourist attractions, where an abnormally high salt concentration allows swimmers to float on the water’s surface.

Shneur Zalman Friedman was at the sea when strong currents swept him far from shore. His father noticed he was missing, sparking a frantic search involving a police helicopter and dozens of workers combing the shoreline and criscrossing the sea in motorboats.

Workers were discussing calling off the search minutes before volunteers in one of the boats spied the boy floating in the water. — AP