A five-year-old boy who was lost for 22 hours in an Argentinian mountain wilderness inhabited by dangerous snakes, cougars and scorpions has been reunited with his family.
Benjamín Sánchez lost sight of his mother while playing hide-and-seek on a visit to El Salado, a semi-desert region of the province of San Juan in western Argentina.
He quickly got lost in the undergrowth, said his mother Andrea Quiroga, 44.
"It was so quiet I could hear him cry but I couldn't see him any more," Quiroga said later.
In the end, Benjamín walked for almost a full day, covering 21km (13 miles) of hills, forests, desert and dangerous swamps.
He was dressed in sneakers, pants and a T-shirt, ideal for an afternoon out in Argentina's summer, but not for a semi-arid desert where the temperatures range from 30C during the day to 0C at night (86 to 32F).
Benjamín found water from a stream and tried to nibble on some plants. "I got cold, I got scared," he said afterwards.
His disappearance dominated the news in Argentina. Prayer groups were set up in the province of San Juan.
Benjamín's mother, a doctor, refused to leave the site of his disappearance until he was found. Drones, a helicopter, and 300 volunteers including horse and motorbike riders participated in the search.
"I was desperate. I started thinking the worst," said Quiroga afterwards.Jubilant rescuers finally found the boy lying amid the bushes in a swampy area after a 22-hour search.
The first person to reach him was horse rider Juan Reynoso, who rode his mount through the deep mud to offer Benjamín water. "It's a swamp with a lot of mud, difficult to cross and animals often get stuck there," Reynoso said.
Benjamín was taken by helicopter to the hospital in the city of San Juan where he was reunited with his mother.