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Snow hinders search for missing British botanist in Sapa
  • By Pham Ngoc Trien | dtinews.vn | December 23, 2013 08:23 AM
 >>  Vietnamese police search for British man missing in Sapa

Local police in the town of Sapa have yet to find a British botanist who went missing in the around 50 days ago, one official said.

 

 Tram Ton area where the botanist took a motorbike taxi before going on foot

Senior lieutenant-colonel, Pham Gia Chien, head of Lao Cai provincial Police Department said on December 19 that in the past few days icy cold weather in Sapa have brought snow and frost adding difficulties to the search.

According to Chien, the search group includes police, militia, workers from the Hoang Lien National Park and some local residents.

Sapa district police and the British Embassy in Hanoi have also called for public help.

Previously, Major-General Hoang Ngoc Thanh, Director of the provincial Police Department said they were informed that Jamie Taggart, a British botanist, went missing in early November after going toward Lai Chau Province leaving passport at a hotel in Sapa and has yet to come back.

After the initial search turned up no track of the botanist, police in Lao Cai have asked for help from police in Lai Chau.

Nguyen Quang Vinh, Director of Hoang Lien National Park said Jamie Taggart came to Sapa in early November. He took a motorbike taxi to the Tram Ton area on Hoang Lien Pass after leaving his guesthouse in Sapa. He did not make any contact in advance with the park’s management board or local government in Sapa.

According to the BBC, Jamie Taggart, 41, from Scotland is in charge of Linn Botanic Gardens and is a local fire-fighter.

Jim Taggart, the botanist’s father, said his son sent four texts to his mobile phone before going missing. The last texts said that was going alone to a place he had been to two years before, and that he knew the way.

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