Police are appealing for help to identify a cut and bruised woman rescued from rocks in the sea off a Croatian island.
The “bloodied blonde”, thought to be in her 60s, was spotted by a fisherman on a jagged outcrop on the isle of Krk, said The Sun. She “was on her own crying and the fisherman was unable to reach her for fear of getting stranded on the rocks”, The Times reported.
After local police were alerted, a team of 14 people used 4x4s and then walked two miles over the jagged rocks to rescue her. The woman reportedly speaks perfect English but told the authorities she had no idea who she was or how she had got there.
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Her rescuers said she had no passport, documents or phone, and was so weak that she found it difficult to drink water. She had survived several nights in an inhospitable area where wild animals roam at night.
A local told Croatian news site 24Sata that the area where she is found, near the small village of Soline, is an “extremely inaccessible part of the bay with terribly sharp rocks, literally razors that cut the rubber on your shoes”.
They continued: “There is no life or animals except maybe wild boars or bears which know how to swim to here in search of food, but this is a rarity because there is no food, nothing. A woman that age certainly could not swim that distance, it needs exceptional strength.”
Another resident speculated that the woman might have “strayed while walking, fell, injured herself and lost her memory due to a blow to the head”.
According to The Times, she “was found at 10am last Sunday and detectives have released her details after failing to identify her”.
The mystery woman, who is 5ft 4in with shoulder-length hair, is now being treated in hospital.
Connected to the mainland by a bridge, Krk has a population of around 17,000 and is the largest island in the Adriatic Sea, covering 157 square miles.
