Police have confirmed that a body found in bushland in southeast Australia is that of a British man who went missing three days ago during a camping trip.
King and four friends had been camping near a popular tourist site known as the Twelve Apostles - a collection of rocks rising out of the sea about 100 miles southwest of Melbourne.
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According to witnesses, King hit his head on the ground and suffering a suspected seizure shortly before his disappearance.
His friends told reporters that he then fell off his chair and crawled under a car. “They tried to restrain him” but he ran off into the surrounding bushland, reports news.com.au, which adds that King had “relocated to Australia just two weeks ago”.
His disappearance was described as out of character by the Australian authorities.
“There was no intelligence to suggest why he left or where he went,” Victoria Police Sergeant Danny Brown said on Tuesday. “His behaviour took everyone by surprise. By all accounts he was a very fit, physically and mentally.”
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The BBC reports that search was made more difficult by the “thick vegetation, rocky clifftops and deep coastal waters in the region”.
Brown offered his condolences to King’s friends following the discovery of his body.
“They have suffered a trauma as well by losing their friend in the beginning and the worry that goes with that,” he said. “And now to have two friends formally identify one of their own, one of their good close friends and they have been friends for a lot of years, is traumatic on its own.”
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