A 61-year-old British man has gone missing while hiking in northern Spain after making an urgent SOS call saying he was ‘lost and exhausted’ amid bad weather
14:31, 15 May 2026Updated 15:26, 15 May 2026
A British man became disorientated while hiking in the area between Cain and Torrecerredo in the Picos de Europa mountain range (file)(Image: Pictures Colour Library)
A British hiker has gone missing in a mountain range in northern Spain amid bad weather.
The 61-year-old man, who was hiking in the Picos de Europa mountain range, said he was “lost and exhausted” in a call to emergency responders at around 7pm on Thursday. Spanish authorities have launched a land and air search, but he has yet to be found.
A spokesman for a regional government-run emergency response coordination centre said late yesterday: “We are coordinating a rescue that began at 7.11pm on Thursday after receiving a 999 call from the Castilla and Leon province 999 ops centre, informing a British mountaineer aged 61 had become disorientated when he was doing a mountain route in the Picos de Europa.
Spain’s Picos de Europa mountain range forms part of the Cantabrian Mountains (file)(Image: Getty Images)
“At that moment he didn’t know where he was, the weather conditions were bad, with wind, low clouds and intermittent rain, and he said he was exhausted.”
Explaining that the man’s rough location was established via coordinates he gave, the spokesman added: “A regional government rescue helicopter was mobilised with two rescuers on board, one of them a nurse. The Civil Guard and provincial firefighters were also alerted.
“When they reached the area the British man was understood to be in, the rescue helicopter carried out several reconnaissance fly-overs but was unable to spot him. As night fell, rescuers accessed the area on foot and began to search it with a Civil Guard specialist mountain search and rescue team.
“The operation continued until the early hours of this morning despite the adverse weather conditions, as it had started snowing in the area. The search was resumed at first light today.”
Officials in the neighbouring region of Asturias have also been involved in the search. A Civil Guard spokesman said: “A search operation is underway in the Picos de Europa for a 61-year-old who is disorientated in the area between Cain [village] and Torrecerredo [peak] in Leon.
“During the night Civil Guard mountain specialists with other emergency responders have been combing the area with the co-ordinates they had been given. Backup units have been incorporated into the ongoing operation at first light.”
The Picos de Europa, meaning Peaks of Europe, is a mountain range extending for around 12 miles that forms part of the Cantabrian Mountains in northern Spain. The highest peak is Torre de Cerredo, also known as Torrecerredo, at 8,690ft.