Manama: Five Pakistani expatriates had a lucky escape after they were lost in the harsh Saudi desert for hours without water or phone signal.
The men were on their way to Hafr Al Atash, a small village 150 kilometres north of the capital Riyadh, when they opted to take a shortcut.
However, they lost their way and their truck got stuck in the deep sands. The phone signal was weak and there was no network to allow them to call anyone for help, local news site Sabq reported on Sunday.
“We discovered them hours after they waded into the dramatic situation,” Abdullah Al Rasheedi, a Saudi citizen, said. “I was riding our vehicle with my sons when we saw the truck. We headed towards it and we found the five men. The first thing we did was to provide them with water because they had run out of it.”
The Pakistanis said that they had lost their way and had no idea where they were, he added.
“We worked together to pull the truck out of the sand and afterwards drove ahead of them until the road they had initially sought to reach for their short cut,” Abdullah said.
Online commentators praised the Saudi man for helping the stranded expatriates.
