1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites
Crime

Police find missing woman — at home

Chase Winter
August 12, 2019

A German woman reported missing in the Danube River after she went looking for her submerged cellphone has been found safe. Authorities spent most of the weekend searching for her with helicopters and scuba divers.

https://p.dw.com/p/3NkQk
Member of a German search and rescue team in a river
Image: picture-alliance/imageBROKER/J. Tack

A German search and rescue operation to find a woman thought to have drowned in the Danube River while searching for her lost cellphone has ended — with the woman being found safe and sound at home.

Rescue crews worked for hours scouring the Danube over the weekend to search for the 31-year-old, who was reported missing in the river on Friday evening near the Bavarian city of Neu-Ulm.

She had entered the river to search for her phone, and bystanders notified police after she appeared to vanish in the swift current.

Authorities deployed helicopters, sonar boats and scuba divers, but until Sunday morning found no trace of the woman.

Read more: German police invited to erotic bondage session after responding to complaint

Left the river, went home

Police said the woman had been able to swim to the banks of the Danube by herself after she disappeared late Friday night. Since then, she had been unreachable.

Police have said there may be consequences for the woman, as she did not notify police upon returning home. As for the phone, a police spokesperson said it was still at the bottom of the Danube.   

Every evening DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here.