COLOMBO, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lankan police said on Monday that they had rescued the seven people reportedly missing inside the Knuckles Mountain Range in the Central Highlands of the island country after they went trekking on April 6.
A large-scale search operation was launched Monday morning to locate the trekkers after one of them had contacted his relatives on Sunday evening and informed them that the group had lost their way inside the Knuckles forest.
Police said they had found the group unharmed. The trekkers, aged between 22 and 24, are residents of Homagama, located in the outskirts of Colombo. They had entered the Knuckles range last week.
The Knuckles mountain range, a world heritage conservation area, is one of Sri Lanka's major nature attractions.
The reserve attracts large numbers of local and foreign tourists per year who visit the area to witness its natural waterfalls and for trekking.
The Knuckles range consists of rugged mountain peaks interspersed with streams and cascading waterfalls and covers an area of 18,512 hectares.
