Missing Irishman found in Sydney five days after disappearing

Updated
missing-irishman-found-sydney-five-days-later
missing-irishman-found-sydney-five-days-later

An Irishman who went missing 'in broad daylight' from a Sydney street has been found alive five days later.

Donal O'Sullivan was reported missing by relatives on Sunday, and was found by chance in a stairwell by the manager of an office building's cleaning company.

Mr O'Sullivan, 33, had last been seen leaving the Tea Gardens Hotel in Bondi Junction on Saturday morning.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, he was found at around 8pm on Wednesday lying naked in a rarely-used emergency stairwell in a commercial building called East Tower about 150 metres from the Tea Gardens.

He was taken to St Vincent's Hospital with serious head and back injuries but in a stable condition.

Robert Goodsell, who runs a clinic in the East Tower, said Mr O'Sullivan was found by chance when the manager of the building's cleaning company was checking up on his employees' work.

Speaking to SMH, he said: "Every week we have the fire stairs cleaned - usually on a Friday - and it just so happened that, fortunately, the owner of the cleaning company had a look in the fire stairs last night to check to make sure that the regular cleaner had been doing his work.

"Luckily he found him there, otherwise it wouldn't have been until Friday."

It is not yet clear how he came to be in the stairwell, but police will interview him in due course.

Donal's brother, Johnnie O'Sullivan, who also lives in Sydney, had been searching with family and friends for his brother since the weekend.

Johnnie said he was "very relieved" his brother had been found. A friend told the Mail Online: "He [Johnnie] went straight there and Donie was able to talk. He recognised Johnnie.

"He's got head and back injuries, and he's very dehydrated, but he's now stable. He's quite stocky and that might have helped over five days without food."

Around 2,000 people had joined a Facebook page dedicated to finding Donal.

According to the Guardian, one woman called Bernie Glynn wrote: "Thank God for a happy outcome for once."

Another friend, Esther Dixon-Mitchell, wrote: "God bless you, speedy recovery, thank God."

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Missing Man Found Alive Covered in Leeches
Missing Man Found Alive Covered in Leeches

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