Rescuers find lost Australian surfer on uninhabited island: “One in a million miracle”

A teenage Australian surfer feared lost at sea was rescued Thursday after spending the night on an uninhabited island miles offshore, officials and local media said.

The man, named in local media as 19-year-old Darcy Deefholts, reportedly went for a surf off a beach in Wooli, a coastal town 300 miles north of Sydney.

He’d left home on Wednesday afternoon.

“When he failed to return home, concerned family members contacted officers,” New South Wales police said in statement.

Police launched a land and water search around Wooli Beach and the surfer was “located safely” on the small island the following day, they said.

The man spent the night on North Solitary Island, about seven miles off the coast, according to Sydney’s Daily Telegraph.

The rescue was a “one in a million miracle,” the teenager’s father, Terry, told the newspaper after earlier saying on social media he’d feared the worst.

His son was receiving medical treatment.