The former commanding officer of missing Swedish man Mr Olaf Jansen has said there is a small chance he is still alive.
Mr Jansen (23), a student of economics in Aberdeen in Scotland and married to a Kerry woman, has not been heard of since setting out two weeks ago from the top of Mangerton Mountain on the edge of the Killarney National Park on a two-day trek toward's Carrauntoohil, Ireland's highest mountain.
First Lt Torbjorn Gillsparr arrived at mountain rescue headquarters in Killarney yesterday along with five of Mr Jansen's former army colleagues in the Swedish special forces, an elite commando-style unit, to search for Mr Jansen. A sixth former colleague was flying in from Stockholm last night.
Gardaí in Killarney stressed yesterday that the group was here in a private capacity and not part of an official Swedish army party. The search for Mr Jansen has officially been called off but has been continued by individual rescue groups.
Mr Jansen's former army colleagues are here at the request of Mr Sven Jansen snr (57), his father, who is in Kerry to search for the second eldest of his five children.