On October 11, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA /. For a week now, Belarusian and Russian services have been searching for a resident of Vitebsk district in the remote forests of the border area, Dmitry Brovko, head of the Vitebsk District Department of Internal Affairs, told a BELTA correspondent. The request to search for the 53-year-old woman was received by the District Department of Internal Affairs from relatives on October 4, two days after she got lost in the forests in the Velizhsky district of the Smolensk region. The woman went there with fellow villagers to pick cranberries. As long as it was possible to maintain contact with the woman by mobile phone, her relatives did not lose hope that she could find her way out on her own. After all, two years ago, a similar incident happened to the berry picker - she wandered through impassable forests for two days and still found her way home. This time, a miracle did not happen, and employees of the Vitebsk District Department of Internal Affairs and the Velizh District Department of Internal Affairs of the police had to join forces in searching for the missing person. Rescuers, foresters, volunteers, as well as servicemen of the internal troops and cynologists joined them. The search is currently ongoing. According to the Department of Internal Affairs of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee, since the beginning of the mass season for picking berries and mushrooms, official searches for people lost in the forests of the Vitebsk region have been conducted at least 25 times. This year, the number of requests for assistance in searching for those lost in the forest several times exceeds the data of previous years. Law enforcement agencies and rescuers urge citizens to be careful and attentive, remembering that an extra bucket of mushrooms or berries is not worth a human life. When going into the forest, you must take care of your own safety and strictly follow the rules of conduct in the forest. Thus, you should inform your relatives and friends about your trip in advance, take a charged mobile phone, water, matches, a raincoat, a whistle, and wear a bright jacket when going into the forest. -0-

BELTA