Uncle reunited with boy found wandering Thai resort alone

PHUKET, Thailand -- A 2-year-old boy who was found dazed and alone on a roadside in the wasteland of a tsunami-devastated Thai resort was reunited Tuesday with his uncle, who spotted the child's picture on the Internet.

The boy, identified by his uncle as Hannes Bergstroem, was found Sunday night on a road in Phang Nga province near the beach resort of Khao Lak, about 60 miles from the island of Phuket. He was taken to Phuket International Hospital where the staff posted pictures of the blond-haired boy, with red spots all over his face from mosquito bites, on its Web site on Monday. They also published his photo in a local newspaper.

The Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet reported the boy's mother and grandmother were missing. His father and grandfather were believed to be in another hospital in Thailand, but their exact location and condition were not immediately known.

A man, who identified himself only as Jim, told the Associated Press on Tuesday in a telephone interview that he found his nephew after he saw his picture on the Web.

"When I saw Hannes on the Internet, I booked an air ticket to come here in less than five hours," said Jim, who rushed to the Phuket hospital on Tuesday from Chonburi province in Thailand, hours away from Phuket, where he was staying. "This is a miracle, the biggest thing that could happen."

Hospital staff said the boy had been babbling but workers did not know what language he was speaking. They thought he might be Swedish because he was enthusiastic when a man spoke Swedish to him.

"He looked bleak when he arrived at the hospital on Sunday night with some surface wounds on his face and body," said Vilad Mumbansao, a hospital staff member.

After the hospital published pictures of the boy, dozens of parents desperate to find missing children turned up, hoping he was theirs. But all left disappointed except the uncle.

The uncle said five of his family members from Goteborg in southwest Sweden were on a monthlong vacation in Thailand when the giant waves struck. The family had spent their last few days in Khao Lak, where surging waves swept away hundreds of tourists and trapped people inside flooded buildings.

Tens of thousands of people were killed in 11 countries from Asia to Africa after Sunday's massive earthquake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra sent 500 mph waves surging across the Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal. More than 1,500 were killed in Thailand, among them more than 700 tourists vacationing at resorts on Phuket island and elsewhere.

It is feared that many children may have been orphaned by the disaster.

The Swedish Gulbstrand family found 7-year-old Swede Karl Nilsson -- called by the nickname Kalle -- sitting along in a Buddhist temple on Phuket on Monday. His parents and two brothers were lost. The Gulbstrands took him in and have been caring for him.

"All night, when he heard the noise of a truck or car, Kalle woke up and asked me, 'Is it another wave coming?"' said Marie Gulbstrand, a doctor.

Gulbstrand, from Stockholm, said her family was in the temple -- temporarily converted into a shelter -- when she heard cries. Her son ran to her calling "Mammy, mammy, there is a little Swedish boy. Come see him."

Kalle, wearing only underwear, had a broken collar bone, bruises and cuts. He screamed as a medical worker stitched his torn feet without anesthetic.

Gulbstrand said Kalle -- pale, with dark half-rings under his eyes -- was clearly in shock. That night the doctor slept alongside him, and on Tuesday he told her his story.

He'd been in a hotel room Sunday morning with his brothers, 5-year-old Olof and Vilgot, 3. His parents, Thomas and Asa, of Lulea, Sweden, were outside.

Suddenly water gushed into the room.

"He told me, 'I was under the water but somehow I could breathe. I was just closing my eyes and moving with the waves. Then, suddenly the flood ended and I was in another city.," Gulbstrand said.

He was actually still in the same place, only disoriented and battered beyond recognition by the tsunami.

Wandering alone, he was eventually helped by some Thai people and a Swedish couple who took him to a Buddhist temple, one of many serving as emergency shelters.

On Tuesday night, Kalle was watching cartoons in a room at the Phuket Island Pavilion hotel, where he was staying with the Gulbstrands and some of their friends.

In other rooms, other parents hoped their missing children would somehow return to them from the deadly waters.

Hospital officials in Phuket said Tuesday they also were looking for Norbert and Edeltraud Michl, parents of a 10-year-old German girl, Sophia Michl, who they were caring for. She has cuts and bruises on her face.

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On the Net: Phuket International Hospital, children's photo:

http://www.phuket-inter-hospital.co.th/boy.htm