An 11-year-old autistic child was found alive after four nights alone in an Australian forest.

Police Commander Rick Nugent said a police helicopter spotted Luke Shambrook about two miles from his family’s campsite in Fraser National Park in Victoria.

“I just out of the corner of my eye caught a little flash of something,” Sergeant Brad Pascoe of the police Air Wing said. “It wasn’t much, but it was enough to make me get the guys to turn the aircraft around and have a further look.  As we got closer and were able to have a better look at him, we saw that it was a person on the ground and we were able to train the camera in and confirm that it was actually Luke.”

“All of us in the crew are parents ourselves and we can only imagine what the parents of Luke have been going through. It’s just such a reward for everybody’s efforts.”

Luke was unable to communicate with his rescuers, a common thing for children who have autism.  However, he did drink water and ate an offered bread roll.  Because of Luke’s limited communication ability, police say it’s likely they will never know all the boy faced during this ordeal.

Nugent told reporters the boy was suffering from hypothermia and dehydration but that overall is well.   Temperatures in the region fell to 48 degrees in the evening.

“[Luke is] one courageous, strong, determined young man”, Nugent said. “Four days, four nights in this terrain, it really is a miracle that he’s alive and well.”