Elderly French woman survives week trapped in ravine

A missing 78-year-old woman has been rescued from the bottom of a ravine in the French Alps, after surviving a week without food or shelter. Michèle Riotton, who has Alzheimer's disease, left her home in the village of Armoy in the east of France last Sunday, and fell into the wooded ravine while walking.

Jean-Marie Choisel

She was found on Saturday morning, 700 metres from her house, by a search party of her neighbours.

Riotton remembers falling down the slope and then falling asleep, she told journalists from the hospital where she is currently receiving treatment for dehydration and bruises.

Her only food for seven days was two biscuits that she had in her pocket, and she had to drink rainwater to survive.

But Riotton said that she hadn't been afraid during her ordeal.

"Dying didn't scare me because I wouldn't have felt it, but it would have upset my children," she said.

When Riotton was first reported missing, the authorities dispatched a helicopter, police and firemen to scour the local area.

But the official search was halted on Monday evening, leaving villagers to take over the rescue effort themselves.

Riotton's neighbours made posters calling on locals to keep looking for her - and eventually their efforts paid off.

"It's a miracle," said one resident, Patrice Froissard, who admitted that villagers had begun to despair of finding Riotton alive.

"The first thing she said was, be careful, don't slip," he recalls. "Then she apologised for not being presentable."

"I never want to see a forest again," says Riotton now. "I want to go into a retirement home."