Rising river strands tourists at wild camping site

Tourists wild camping in Våtedalen, between Gloppen and Sunnfjord in Vestland, were stranded on an “island” on Thursday after heavy rain caused the Våtedalselva river to rise, Dagbladet reported. Firda Tidend first covered the incident.

All the tourists have been brought to safety by boat and accommodated at a campsite, Joar Flølo, incident commander with Gloppen fire service, told Dagbladet. Their cars remain at the site.

“If the river rises even more, the cars will have to be recovered by a vehicle recovery service,” Flølo said.

He added that this was not the first time tourists had been stranded there. The location is popular for wild camping and can sometimes accommodate up to 50 vehicles, he said.

According to NRK, the road leading to the area is now one metre underwater.