A 10-year-old girl miraculously survived after clinging to a stray dog for 18 hours during a harsh blizzard in Russia that was marked with 2-foot snowdrifts, according to published news reports.
The terrifying ordeal took place on Jan. 13, when Viktoria Zarubina went missing from her school around 1 p.m. in the town of Uglegorsk, an island of Sakhalin in Russia.
The girl’s mother, Tatyana, called the police when her young daughter did not return home.
As the night grew darker and the visibility was poorer, dozens of people searched for the girl throughout the night. Volunteers and police searched yards, alleys, and houses in the vicinity.
One volunteer told Komsolmolskaya Pravda that after searching all night, search crews began to get discouraged. “By morning, we started to think she would not be found alive. How can you survive such a nightmare outside?”
After someone reported that Zarubina was playing with a stray animal near an apartment building’s yard, search crews found her.
Around 7:30 a.m. Zarubin was found underneath a low balcony, which offered some protection from the elements. It was located approximately 500 yards away from her home. She had been sitting on a mattress hugging the stray dog when rescue teams found her, Newsweek reported.
According to media reports, she was taken to the hospital and then returned home that day.
According to Komsolmolskaya Pravda, the young child was scared of the storm and when it started to get dark, she huddled next to the dog as the blizzard grew worse.
Ulegorsk police spokesperson said that “fortunately everything turned out to be all right with the girl,”ASTV, a news outlet, reported the story.