Norwegian Conscripts Got Lost Near the Border With Russia. They Have Already Been Found

Norwegian conscripts got lost during a training exercise near the border with Russia. They were found in a day.

The incident was reported by the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet.

A large-scale search operation was launched after ten soldiers failed to return from a training exercise in East Finnmark.

During the maneuvers in the Nesseby municipality of the northeastern Norwegian province of Finnmark, near the Murmansk region of Russia, the soldiers who got lost near the border were practicing their camouflage skills.

The exercise was supposed to end on the morning of Thursday, October 2nd, but 10 soldiers did not show up at the agreed upon location at 7 a.m. as they were supposed to.

The search, which was complicated by hilly and marshy terrain, involved police, Norwegian rescue dogs, the Red Cross, the Armed Forces, police drones and Sar-Queen.

As a result, five soldiers were found on Thursday evening, five more made themselves known via communications on Friday morning, and a search team was sent to find them.

All of them were found safe and sound, and none of them needed medical assistance, according to Norwegian media.

Lieutenant Colonel Audun Jørstad noted that such exercises were ‘risky,’ but all the soldiers had been well prepared for them.

Some of them were called up for military service 15 months ago, others – 12 months ago.

Lt. Col. Vegard Finberg, Public Affairs Officer at the Norwegian Armed Forces Joint Headquarters, said that the exercise was part of an approximately 14-day exam to join the GSV Ranger Battalion in the Garrison of Sør-Varanger.

The GSV Ranger Battalion (Norwegian: Jegerbataljonen GSV, formerly known as the Garrison of Sør-Varanger) is a light infantry battalion of the Norwegian Army Border Guards that monitors the 196-kilometer (122-mile) border between Norway and Russia. It is located at Høybuktmoen in the municipality of Sør-Varanger in the municipality of Finmark.