A Taiwanese trekker who went missing in a remote mountainous part of Nepal seven weeks ago has been found by rescuers.
His girlfriend, 19-year-old Liu Chen-chun, died before the rescue team located the couple in northwest Nepal.
Liang Sheng-yueh, 21, was airlifted to hospital in Kathmanduafter being rescued from the steep slope where the couple had been trapped for over a month.
"He was sleeping when we found them," one of the rescuers Madhav Basnyat said.
"He woke up after he heard us. We were very surprised to find him alive. He said that the girl died three days earlier."
The rescuer said that the two had followed a river downhill in the hope of finding a village but became stuck when they reached the edge of a waterfall and were unable to climb back up.
"They had been trapped there for 47 days when we reached," he said.
Speaking haltingly and in broken English as he sipped hot soup, Mr Liang told AFP it had been "very cold" on the mountain, and difficult to sleep.
Doctors treating Mr Liang said that he had lost 30 kilos and maggots had infested his right leg.
"When he was brought in he had maggots and was starved because he hadn't eaten," his doctor said.
The couple survived on potatoes and noodles until they ran out of food and had to keep going on water alone.
Mr Liang's father had travelled to Nepal after the couple went missing and chartered a helicopter to search for them.
Spring is peak season in Nepal's snow-capped peaks, a popular hiking destination with around 150,000 trekkers visiting the Annapurna and Everest regions every year.
