Kayaker trapped on Australian river has leg amputated in 20-hour rescue

A kayaker’s leg was amputated Saturday in a harrowing 20-hour effort to free him after he became trapped in rocks on a river in Australia, police in the state of Tasmania said.

The man, a foreign tourist in his 60s, was then flown to a hospital in the city of Hobart, where he is in critical condition, authorities added.

The man, who has not been identified by authorities, was on a group kayaking expedition in the Franklin River on Friday when his leg got stuck between rocks in a remote section of the rapids.

Emergency teams responded when they received a distress signal from a smartwatch at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, police said in a statement. When rescuers reached the remote location, they tried but failed to free the kayaker in the evening.

The kayaker spent the night partly submerged in the river; a medical team stayed with him throughout. In the morning, another attempt to free him failed as his condition deteriorated, police said.

After consulting with the man, the medical team amputated his leg using specialized equipment, police said.

“This rescue was an extremely challenging and technical operation,” Doug Oosterloo, acting assistant commissioner of the Tasmania Police, said in a statement. “Every effort was made to extract the man before the difficult decision to amputate his leg.”

Police said they were in the process of contacting the man’s family.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.