Matthew Allen was missing for 62 days

A teenager has been rescued after spending more than two months in the Australian bush during a record-breaking heatwave.

Matthew Allen, 18, survived 62 days amid searing temperatures, including Sydney’s hottest day on record when the temperature peaked above 45 degrees, and police feared that he had died.

He was last seen when he left his family home at Westleigh, a suburb which is surrounded by bushland 17 miles (27km) northwest of Sydney, on November 27.

Despite weeks of police searches in the surrounding area, involving helicopters and rescue dogs, Mr Allen could not be located.

Officers were amazed when he was discovered by hikers on Saturday afternoon lying in thick scrub less than a mile from his home.

Mr Allen was emaciated, partially blind, covered in leeches and insect bites, and was suffering gangrene in his feet and lower legs.

He had lost half his body weight and told the hikers that found him that he had survived by drinking water from a creek.

Police said they were amazed Mr Allen had survived.

“He was completely exhausted, completely dehydrated, suffered significant weight loss, somewhere up to 50 per cent. He was suffering from partial blindness and he had leeches all over him,” said acting police inspector Glyn Baker.

“He was not living under any shelter and was exposed to the full conditions since reported being missing,” he added.

Police said Mr Allen was believed to have deliberately hidden himself from view in the area which is heavily frequented by hikers. He has been reunited with his family and is now being treated in hospital for his injuries. There are serious concerns for his physical and mental health, according to police.

The bushland where Mr Allen was found is very dense, but in close proximity to residential housing and local shops. It is impenetrable except for the winding hikers’ paths that run through it.

Along the track near Elouera Road, where Mr Allen was found, hikers pass people’s backyards as they walk through the bushland under towering eucalyptus trees.

But further into the bush, under the cover of sandstone rocks and dense tangles of shrubs, it would be relatively easy to go unnoticed. It would appear this is where the teenager spent nine weeks, living in the deep valley just below his parents’ house, surrounded by wallabies, snakes, bush turkeys, and countless leeches and mosquitoes.

One of the Allen family’s neighbours said they were stunned that Matthew had survived for more than two months in the bush.

“It’s amazing,” the neighbour, who did not wish to be named, told AAP.

“The bush is very dense, and unless he was very au fait with how to survive in the bush I don’t know how he did it.”

Another neighbour suspected Mr Allen may have lived off freshwater fish, or possibly frogs, from the nearby creek.

The normally trickling creek, where Mr Allen told police he found drinking water, was rushing today after torrential rain.

In 2009 a British backpacker, Jamie Neale, was discovered alive after surviving 12 days lost in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney.

Mr Neale, 19, had become lost after embarking on a day hike in the popular tourist area while in Australia as part of his gap year. He later said he had survived the freezing temperatures by huddling under his jacket at night, eating berries and plants, and drinking from streams.

Lucinda Beaman and Sophie Tedmanson

Source: thetimes.co.uk