Authorities enter second day of search for woman believed to be foreign national lost on Mount Cheolma

A woman believed to be a foreign national has been missing on Mount Cheolma in Namyangju, Gyeonggi, since Friday after calling emergency services to say that she had lost her way while hiking, with police and firefighters entering their second day of intensive searches.

The woman first dialed for help at 9:06 p.m. on Friday, telling responders in English that she could not find the trail. She gave her location only as “Iron horse,” which authorities took as a reference to Cheolma, the Sino-Korean term for “iron horse” and the name of the mountain. 

Crews began searching the area around Jinjeop-eup in Namyangju that night.

In a final call between 5 and 5:50 a.m. on Saturday, the woman said that she was still wandering the mountain and that her phone had only 7 percent battery left. She has not been reached since, and her phone is now off, leaving authorities unable to track her location.

Search teams combed the main trails branching toward Jinjeop, Onam and Sudong but found no trace of her. Firefighters deployed 13 pieces of rescue equipment and 34 personnel on the ground and added a helicopter to the search on Saturday morning.

“We are having trouble pinpointing her exact location because her phone is now off,” a fire authority official said. “The caller's identity and nationality have not been confirmed either. We are doing everything we can in the search.”

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.

BY KO SEUNG-PYO [[email protected]]