On the evening of April 3, 39 hikers were stranded on Mao'er Mountain in Fangshan District, Beijing. Beijing police deployed multiple law enforcement units for the rescue operation and utilized a police helicopter, taking 13 hours to bring all trapped individuals down the mountain. This marked the first time Beijing police used a helicopter in a rescue mission.
Xinhua News Agency reported that at around 19:50 on April 3, Beijing police received a report that over 30 students from Beijing Institute of Technology were stranded while hiking on Mao'er Mountain, with some having already become separated from the group. The Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau promptly mobilized more than 300 officers to rush to Mao'er Mountain, while Fangshan District also organized a rescue team to carry out preliminary search and rescue efforts.
Mao'er Mountain is located in the central part of Fangshan District, Beijing, with an elevation of 1,307 meters, and is one of the main peaks of the Western Hills of Beijing. Due to the mountainous terrain, mobile phone signals were unstable, which posed significant challenges for rescue teams searching for the stranded hikers. Rescuers could only use flashlights to scan the mountainside and shout loudly to locate the trapped individuals. Special police also employed thermal imaging devices to aid in the search.
By 3:40 a.m. on April 4, 28 of the stranded individuals had been rescued and brought down the mountain, but one man and one woman remained unaccounted for. At around 7 a.m., two helicopters arrived at Mao'er Mountain to assist in the search. At that point, the mobile phones of the two missing hikers were finally able to connect. Subsequently, the police helicopter spotted individuals using reflective signals on the ridge. After confirming their identity, the two stranded hikers were rescued.