STA, 31 May - A search party is looking for a 23-year-old British citizen who has gone missing in the treacherous, narrow gorge of Koritnica River in the mountains of northeastern Slovenia on Thursday. A day earlier, a compatriot of his narrowly escaped death in a kayaking accident on the Soča.
According to the Nova Gorica police, the man, accompanied by another Brit, dropped his cell phone into the gorge while visiting Kluže fort, an ancient military check point positioned high above the Koritnica.
After realising that he would not be able to reach the bottom of the gorge from the fort, he and the other Brit rode some half a kilometre onward in the direction of the village of Log pod Mangartom.
While his companion waited in their van, the man went to look for his phone, the police said, adding that the terrain there was steep and dangerous, while the Kortinica water level was high due to the rain that persisted in the past weeks.
A search and rescue mission involving the police and the Mountain Rescue Service was launched immediately after the man was reported missing. His friends also joined the effort.
This happened only a day after a British kayaker almost drowned in the Soča river, some 10 kilometres south of the Kluže fort. She was a part of a group of kayakers who went into the swelling river without a guide, the police said in a separate press release on Wednesday.
She was soon turned upside-down by a strong current. She managed to free herself from under the kayak, only to get stuck behind a tree trunk. Members of the group tried to help her unsuccessfully and she was swept away once again.
Fortunately, the young woman managed to get herself out of the water further downstream.
Related: 10 ways to enjoy the River Soča
