A 45-year-old woman reported missing a week ago was found trapped inside her own car during a heatwave after an apparent accident, public prosecutors said Tuesday.
The woman had spent at least six days with no food or water during the record-breaking heatwave which hit Belgium last week.
She was last seen on July 23 as she stopped in a gas station after leaving her boyfriend's house in the Liège municipality of Awan at around 23:30, according to De Standaard.
Search parties scoured the area after the woman was reported missing in the following days, after she was not seen or heard of.
A volunteer search party sticking flyers on windshields found the woman on Monday at around 18:00, according to the outlet — almost a week after her reported disappearance.
The woman was found "squeezed, but conscious" inside her Fiat Bravo in a road by a canal near the town of Saint-Georges-sur-Meuse, around a dozen kilometres from Awans.
Having spent six days inside her vehicle with no food or water during a week which saw temperatures in Belgium soar to record highs, she was rushed to the hospital in a critical condition.
Her relatives were relieved that she had been found, with one of her children declaring: "For me and my little brothers, it is a great relief to know that she is still alive."
Gabriela Galindo
The Brussels Times