Ruthven Ian Atkin­son, the 57-year-old Princes Town man who went miss­ing dur­ing an out­ing to the Bun­see Mud Vol­cano, was found alive near Mon Di­a­blo Beach around 6 pm yes­ter­day, bring­ing an end to an in­tense search ef­fort.

Atkin­son was dis­cov­ered shirt­less along the coast­line af­ter rel­a­tives, fear­ing he may have made his way to­ward the sea, se­cured a boat and be­gan search­ing off­shore.

Fam­i­ly mem­bers lo­cat­ed him near the beach and quick­ly brought him to safe­ty.