Joy and tears: A two-year-old boy found dazed, alone and apparently orphaned in a devastated Thai resort was identified and reunited with his family after an aunt in Sweden recognised his picture on the internet.
Ms Viola Hellstroem was scouring the internet for news of her holidaying family, who were missing after the tsunami struck Thailand, when she stumbled across a photograph of her nephew, Hannes Bergstroem.
The picture of the boy, unharmed and smiling in the arms of a hospital nurse, had been posted on a special webpage set up by Phuket international hospital.
Doctors at the hospital could not identify the boy after he was found sitting on a road near the town of Khao Lak, in Phang Nga province, where surging waves swept away hundreds of tourists and trapped people inside flooded buildings.
"He looked bleak when he arrived at the hospital on Sunday night with some surface wounds on his face and body," said Dr Vilad Mumbansao, a hospital staff member.
The boy spoke to staff but they could not work out the language he was speaking. They suspected he could be Swedish when he responded enthusiastically to a man who spoke the language. Hearing of an unidentified boy, dozens of parents desperate to find missing children turned up at the hospital, but it was Ms Hellstroem who finally identified him on the internet.
"I screamed for joy," she told the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet. "We thought he was dead." The boy's uncle flew to Thailand, arriving on Monday evening to claim him.
"When I saw Hannes on the internet, I booked an air ticket to come here in less than five hours," Mr Jim Hellstroem said. "This is a miracle, the biggest thing that could happen." Five relatives from Gothenburg were holidaying in Thailand for a month when the waters struck.
The boy's father and paternal grandfather have reportedly been found in a another hospital, but his mother and paternal grandmother are still missing. - (Guardian Service)