American Tourist In Australia Dies From Heat After Getting Lost While Hiking

Soaring temperatures in Australia claimed the life of a 33-year-old tourist from the United States in the popular Larapinta trail in the Northern Territory on Wednesday.

The man set out to climb the Mount Sonder, the highest point in the Larapinta trail, at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday local time (6 p.m. EST Tuesday) and was found dead at 5 pm, 750 meters away from a car park near Redbank George, BBC reported.

The trek that begins near Alice Springs ends at Mount Sonder in the Northern territory. Police told the Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC) that the man and his 40-year-old companion had set off to climb the trail. They were separated upon their descent in the Northern Territory. The police said the body was discovered three hours after the man went missing on the trail.

According to Duty Superintendent Rob Burgoyne, "His partner made it back to the Red bank Gorge car park and raised the alarm, but unfortunately the 33-year-old didn't arrive and his body was eventually located about 400 meters down the track where he'd turned the wrong way,” ABC Darwin reported.

He added they were looking into the death, however, they do not have any evidence to believe he died in suspicious circumstances.

Authorities had warned against embarking on the trek in the trail amid the heat wave that encapsulated the region as there is a high probability that people might succumb to the risk of becoming severely dehydrated.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, temperature in Alice Springs soared to 42 degrees Celsius on Tuesday. Mount Sonder, the last leg of the Larapinta trek, is an exposed landscape devoid of trees and it's encompassed with rocky terrain.

Chris Day from the Parks and Wildlife Department told ABC Darwin, “It wouldn't be a terribly advisable thing to do in 40-degree heat, to actually sprint away."

While the U.S. is in the throes of a snow/rain storm, Australia is now suffering from a drastic heat wave that killed thousands of large bats, called flying foxes. A conservation group, Help Save the Wildlife and Bush lands in Campbell town, told CNN about 3,000 flying foxes died this past weekend.

The news comes eleven months after two German tourists went missing in the Northern Territory. Gisela Thor, 73, and Wilfred Thor, 76, hired a car from Alice Springs Airport on Feb. 9, 2017. The couple went missing the next day. Their bodies were discovered at Trephina George, a remote part in the Northern Territory. The temperature around the park at that time was 40 degree Celsius, Guardian reported.