Personnel from the Šibenik station of the Croatian Mountain Rescue Service (Hrvatska gorska služba spašavanja) rescued a man trapped between rocks in the Čikole river canyon on Monday evening, the service reported. The operation concluded at approximately 22:30, with the injured man handed over to emergency medical services.
The station received a report from the 112 emergency centre at 18:40 on 14 July regarding a missing person and a request for search assistance. The search area was identified as the Čikole canyon below the Drniš fortress, where, according to information available to the rescue service, there were indications that the missing person might be located.
Fifteen rescuers with two drones were deployed, and five firefighters from the Drniš Volunteer Fire Department also joined the operation. Due to the challenging and inaccessible terrain, the search was organised from multiple directions: one part of the team surveyed the area using drones, another descended the steep rocks using ropes, while others searched the dry riverbed.
In the early evening, a drone pilot spotted an individual in a steep hollow below the fortress. The man was trapped upside down between the cliffs, and rescue workers estimated that he had been in that position for approximately ten hours in temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius.
Rescuers descended to him with stretchers and first aid equipment, immobilising him, while the rest of the team on higher ground set up a lifting system. The injured man and the rescuers were soon extracted from the canyon.
The rescue service highlighted that the drone played a key role in the operation, particularly as it illuminated the dark and hard-to-reach canyon. "These moments show the value of the training, the field exercises, and the effort put in by the rescuers. Everything aligned at the right moment, and the result was a saved life," the rescue service stated.
