The incident occurred on the evening of October 6, when two foreign tourists were on a journey across Vietnam on a large-displacement motorbike. Starting from Hanoi, they drove to the South, when they arrived at Con Tien commune (Quang Tri province), they chose a route according to the digital map and mistakenly turned into a trail through the forest in Khe Me village.
Heavy rain, slippery mountain terrain caused a motorbike to slide into the ravine, fortunately both were not injured. However, due to disorientation and exhaustion, they could not escape from the deep forest area - about 7km from the nearest house.
At around 6:00 p.m. the same day, people going to the forest discovered the incident and immediately reported it to the Con Tien Commune Police. Upon receiving the report, Lieutenant Colonel Vo Quang Tien - Deputy Head of the Commune Police Department directly commanded a rescue team of 10 people, using specialized vehicles and agricultural tractors to approach the scene.
The forest road is muddy, it is dark, making it very difficult to move. It took the group more than 3 hours to cross the forest, and at around 9:30 p.m., the working group was able to safely get the two tourists and the vehicle out of the danger zone.
After being rescued, the two tourists expressed their emotions and thanked the authorities and local people. They took souvenir photos, wrote thank you letters, and shared that their travel journey across Vietnam was interrupted because they believed too much in the "shortcut" suggested by Google Maps.
One of the two cars had a broken gearbox and was pulled out of the forest, after which both were supported to move to Cam Lo for rest and repair.
