Boy Saved By Camera As Parents Die In Desert

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A French couple have died while hiking in the New Mexico desert, but their nine-year-old son was rescued after police found pictures of him on his dead mother's camera and followed his tracks.

David Steiner, 42, and Ornella Steiner, 51, had been hiking in the White Sands National Monument on Tuesday afternoon when they apparently succumbed to heat exhaustion, said Otero County Sheriff's Office.

"They underestimated the elements," Detective David Hunter told AFP news agency.

Park rangers who were on a routine patrol first discovered the mother's body.

They checked through her camera and realised that she had been with two other people, Mr Hunter said.

Authorities followed tracks and about half an hour later found the body of the father, with the son nearby.

The boy, named in French media as Enzo, was dehydrated but conscious and was taken to a local hospital for treatment.

US authorities contacted the French consulate.

Otero County Sheriff Benny House told local media the family, from the town of Bourgogne near Reims, had been on a trip across the US.

Sheriff House said the boy had told authorities his mother turned back towards the car after becoming unwell on the hike.

He had continued on with his father.

"I don't think he realised his mother was dead," Sheriff House told the New York Daily News.

According to the Alamogordo Daily News, the sheriff said temperatures had soared past 100F (38C) that day.

National Parks spokesman Patrick O'Driscoll told the newspaper there was no shade or water along any trail in the dune-filled desert.

The boy's grandfather flew out from France and took custody of him on Thursday.

Alain Steiner told L'Union newspaper that Enzo was in an Albuquerque hotel.

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