Panama City, Jun 8 (EFE).- Emergency management services in Panama found two French tourists alive on Sunday in the western jungle of Bocas del Toro after they were given up for lost the day before, an official said.

A spokesperson for the Sinaproc emergency management agency told reporters that the Frenchmen Elliot Nakache and Herve Dupied, who were on a hiking expedition, were found Monday morning “in the mountains of Bocas del Toro.”

Sinaproc director Jose Donderis said the “rapid reaction” of the rescuers “saved two lives,” though the Europeans’ state of health was not mentioned.

Helicopters of the National Naval Air Service, or Senan, and Sinaproc experts took off at dawn Monday to search for the foreigners on the Caribbean side of the province at some 600 kilometers (375 miles) northwest of the nation’s capital.

Senan said the Frenchmen sent a call for help Sunday afternoon, but the heavy downpour falling on the jungle area along the Costa Rican border made a search by air impossible.

Last year, on a trail from the neighboring province of Chiriqui to Bocas del Toro, two young Dutch citizens lost their lives, apparently in an accident, after hiking into the tropical rainforest alone. EFE