Ten-year-old girl survived the ferociously cold Russian night of snow, thanks to her clinging to a stray dog.
Following a chaotic search of police officers, volunteers and others, Vika Z’s frostbite was discovered hugging her ‘fluffy abandoned pet’.
According to police, she was half-way lost when she returned home from Sakhalin on Russia’s largest Island, Uglegorsk, where temperatures plunged down to minus 11.C.
Vika Z, ten, (left, with mother Tatyana, and right) miraculously survived a cold night in a snow blizzard in Uglegorsk on Russia’s largest island, Sakhalin, by hugging a stray dog for warmth
After a chaotic search of police and officials, volunteers and officers, Vika Z was discovered with frostbite snuggling the abandoned dog. Pictured: File photo of Uglegorsk covered in snow
Snowfalls of more than 2ft were recorded, with snow drifts reaching the first floors of some houses.
After walking back from school, the girl was finally found after 18 hours.
She described how she was “hugging a fluffy puppy for warmth”.
Vika and Vika were sleeping on a bed that had been left out for homeless dogs. They were under a low balcony to shelter them from the storm.
Reports that her climb was reported in the past, however this is not true.
A local source said that she was taken to the hospital and diagnosed with mild frostbite.
Vika left school at noon and was returned to school the next morning at 8.45am.
Olesya Voznyuk is an investigator with the Investigative Commission. She said that the dog was under the balcony and she was hiding.
Vika (pictured), who was returning from Uglegorsk school, had been lost for half of a mile when she got to her house in freezing temperatures.
Vika and Vika were sheltering from the storm on the balcony by sleeping together under a blanket. Pictured: Vika and the stray dog were sleeping on a mattress under a low balcony, sheltering from the raging storm.
The girl is a big animal lover and used to love playing with dogs at home.
“She was going to take care of these dogs after school but got caught up in the strong wind and snow storm.”
Although the space below the balcony provided some shelter, it took over 40 people more than 12 hours for her to be found from the time her parents raised an alarm.
Tatyana, a 34-year old mother who was in’relief’, was reunited at the hospital with Vika.
The girl was released from the hospital that same day.
There are now plans to honor Vika’s dog, if they find it.
The stray was lost.