British tourist who went missing for 4 days found living with family in Egypt village

A British tourist in Egypt who went missing for four days was found living at a family’s home by the Nile River, local media reported.

After reports that the tourist, Benjamin, had gone missing, police and rescue teams searched for him for four days before finding him living in the village of Ar-Rayanah Bil Hajir in the Sohag governorate, 40 kilometres away from where he was last seen.

Benjamin said he did not expect the hospitality he received from the local residents, indicating that he had a great desire to live in the rural area as he was a “lover of simple life.”

Ar-Rayanah Bil Hajir lies on the eastern banks of the Nile River and has a population of roughly 15,000. It is considered one of the poorest villages in Sohag.

Hundreds of thousands of British tourists visit Egypt every year. The country’s tourism industry is only just emerging from a decade of political upheaval and the Covid-19 pandemic.

While attacks on tourists have largely ceased since they peaked in the 1990s, deadly incidents have occurred.

An Italian student was abducted and gruesomely murdered in early 2016. His mutilated body was found in a ditch alongside the Cairo-Alexandria desert highway nine days later.