Missing 8-year-old boy found alive in a sewer in Germany

An eight-year-old boy who had been missing for more than a week in Oldenburg, a city in northwestern Germany, was found alive in a sewer and taken to a hospital, local police said Saturday.

"Eight-year-old Joe is alive!" tweeted Oldenburg police after a search that began on June 17. Officers went so far as to believe he may have been a kidnapping victim.

The little boy, who suffers from learning disabilities, survived eight days trapped in a manhole 300 meters from his home while hundreds of officers and volunteers searched tirelessly for clues to his whereabouts.

A passerby who heard a noise inside a manhole and reported it to the police, who immediately launched rescue operations. The child was found naked, cold, and dehydrated inside the manhole, CBS reported.

Die Polizei in Oldenburg schließt im Fall Joe Fremdverschulden aus. Der Junge ist demnach am Tag seines Verschwindens in das Kanalsystem gekrochen und hat dort die Orientierung verloren:https://t.co/mpl9mtzBjq

— NDR Niedersachsen (@NDRnds) June 28, 2022

"Thanks to a tip from the public, we were able to find Joe (name changed) in a culvert today. The most important thing is that he is alive and was immediately transferred to a hospital, where he is in good hands. We can all breathe a sigh of relief," police chief Johann Kühme said in the press release.

Authorities concluded that "Joe" most likely got into a concrete drainage pipe while playing, then crawled into the sewer system through a canal and was lost after several meters.

The boy told police in an initial statement that he felt increasingly disoriented while trapped in the sewers and was unable to find his way out, the media outlet reported.