BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – A large-scale coordinated search operation is ongoing across the rugged Mt. Liamuiga mountain range after a 33-year-old Chinese national went missing during a solo hiking trip, local law enforcement confirmed Friday.
The Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force (RSCNPF) is leading the effort, with joint support from the St. Kitts-Nevis Defence Force, the Fire and Rescue Department, and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to locate the missing hiker, identified as Wang Zyuan, born August 29, 1992.
According to official police records, Wang was last spotted on the mountain’s hiking trail around 10 a.m. local time on Wednesday, May 27, 2026. He had set out on the hike unaccompanied, with no professional guide, and was wearing black outerwear paired with red athletic shoes when he was last seen.
Roughly four hours after he was first noted on the trail, Wang placed an emergency call to 911 to report he had become disoriented and lost in the mountain wilderness. But shortly after that initial distress call, all communication with Wang cut off, leaving search teams with no updated information on his location or condition.
A combined search and rescue deployment was assembled within hours of the lost contact, with crews working through the evening of May 27 to cover accessible sections of the range. Search operations were suspended overnight as a safety precaution for crews, and resumed at dawn on Thursday, May 28. Search teams advanced across steep hillsides all the way to the mountain’s crater area on Thursday, but failed to turn up any trace of the missing hiker.
Operations were again paused for the night of May 28, with plans to restart search efforts on the morning of May 29. Investigators have obtained cell tower location data from local network providers, which authorities say will help narrow search zones and direct rescue teams to high-priority areas to maximize the chances of locating Wang.
In addition to deploying official emergency resources, local authorities have put out a public call for civilian volunteers to join the search effort, to expand the coverage of teams across the large, rugged mountain range.
Mt. Liamuiga has a history of similar incidents: over recent years, multiple hikers have been reported missing after straying into unmarked or difficult sections of the range, though most of those individuals were eventually located and rescued by emergency response teams.