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A man who was missing for about a week in sub-zero temperatures and difficult terrain has been found safe and well south-west of Alice Springs.
Gach Top failed to show up for a night shift on July 28, just hours after the 26-year-old man spoke to his family on the phone.
Police found his red Mazda on Larapinta Drive the next morning.
The search was suspended over the weekend, and the matter was handed over to the NT Police Southern Crime Division for investigation.
“I want to thank all the search teams who have done an excellent job covering a huge area over the past five days but, unfortunately, it hasn’t produced the result we hoped for,” Acting Sergeant Chris Grotherr said as the search was suspended.
His family was informed of the decision.
But yesterday evening, members of the community found Top near Jay Creek, about 45km from where he was first declared missing.
He was taken to the Alice Springs Hospital for assessment.
ATVs, drones, jets, helicopters and the dog squad were part of the multi-agency search and rescue team, which scoured more than 500km of “difficult terrain” about 21km west of Alice Springs for Top.
Fears for his safety grew when the search yielded no results.
At the same time, weather conditions worsened as temperatures fell to -0.5 degrees on Thursday and remained between a low of 0 and 2 degrees for the remainder of the week.