Facebook helps find missing Nepalese skier in Paris

A teenage skier from the Nepalese national team who went missing while training in the Alps has been found wandering the streets of Paris thanks to a Facebook campaign, his team said today. "The teenager had been living rough after walking several miles across France surviving through the kindness of local people," said a statement from team secretary Ben Campbell.

A teenage skier from the Nepalese national team who went missing while training in the Alps has been found wandering the streets of Paris thanks to a Facebook campaign, his team said on Monday.

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"The teenager had been living rough after walking several hundred kilometres (miles) across France surviving through the kindness of local people," said a statement from team secretary Ben Campbell.

Uttam Rayamajhi, 17, quit the team's training base at Les Arcs, southeast France, on May 3, upset over a funding row that threatened the future of his country's ski team.

Rayamajhi speaks neither French nor English, had no money, no mobile phone and no experience of big cities, Richard Morley, a former team coach who has been overseeing the squad in the Alps, said after his disappearance.

He was stopped at routine police checks several times as he wandered through France but was never detained as his visa was valid, Campbell's team statement said.

The campaign on the social networking website was the brainchild of French student Tom Baraize who met the Nepal team at the recent World Alpine Ski Championships in the French Alps, where he acted as their liaison officer.