00:00 TV6 News understands that just after 3 p.m. on Sunday, a group of hikers from Rio Claro
00:06 noticed that the water level was rising quickly at Mermaid Pool in Matura.
00:10 The group was reportedly on the way to notify another group of hikers about the threat,
00:15 when one team member was bitten by a snake.
00:18 At about 3.22 p.m. they heard a roar, which was water coming from torrential rains higher
00:26 up the river and they scrambled to get to higher ground and they remembered that there
00:32 was another group speeding higher up and they ran to alert that group.
00:38 And during the course of this happening, 57-year-old Osley Eccles was bitten by a mapipi.
00:48 So this added to all the chaos and confusion.
00:51 A call was made to the Matura Police Station.
00:55 Police contacted the Hunter Surgeon Rescue Team led by Captain Balance Ramparad, as well
01:00 as the Fire Services Surgeon Rescue Unit.
01:03 All parties responded and worked together to get the injured hiker out of the area.
01:07 TV6 News was told that the rescue mission took approximately five hours, as the trail
01:13 is two kilometers long and the injured man had to be brought out by stretcher.
01:19 He was transferred to an ambulance at about 9 p.m. and taken to the Sandy Grandy Hospital
01:25 for treatment.
01:26 All 15 hikers were accounted for.
01:29 Vanessa Cutting, TV6 News.
01:31 Hold up, hold up, yeah?
01:33 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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