Born in Salzburg

Search for missing Bodo Hell interrupted

The Viennese writer is missing in the Dachstein region.

(Bild: Sigrid Landl / Droschl Verlag)

There has been no contact with the 81-year-old Viennese writer since Friday. The search for him had to be called off on Monday afternoon due to an approaching thunderstorm. The search is to be continued on Tuesday.

The search operation in the Dachstein region for the missing Viennese writer Bodo Hell (81), which has been ongoing since Sunday, remained unsuccessful until Monday evening. In the late afternoon, the operation had to be interrupted due to an approaching thunderstorm, the mountain rescue service reported in a press release.

Witnesses had last seen the author at around 11 a.m. on Friday. He had told the hikers that he wanted to look for his cattle in the alpine terrain between Grafenbergalm and Heilbronnerkreuz. Since then, there has been no trace of him, according to the Upper Austrian police. The missing man has not been reachable on his cell phone since Friday and has never arrived at his destination, according to the Obertraun Mountain Rescue Service.

Helicopter also involved in the search
After he was also not found in his hut, the emergency services were alerted on Sunday. In addition to the Upper Austrian Mountain Rescue Service and the mountain rescue services of the Styrian Dachstein communities, helicopters from the Salzburg and Graz police forces and the Austrian Armed Forces were also involved in the operation until nightfall on Sunday.

The search has been underway again since Monday morning. More than 30 mountain rescuers from Obertraun and Hallstatt are combing the area together with the alpine task force of the police and several search dogs. A drone was also used. The local expert knows the area on the Dachstein Krippenstein extremely well and is therefore "often on lesser-known paths, which makes the search even more difficult", according to the mountain rescue team.

Thunderstorm stopped the operation
The search had to be interrupted on Monday afternoon due to a thunderstorm. The search operation on the high plateau of the Dachstein plateau will be resumed on Tuesday morning.

Hell was awarded the Styrian Literature Prize this year. Born in Salzburg, he spends his summers in an alpine hut on the Grafenbergalm, where he not only herds around a hundred animals, but also writes his books.