Hikers saved by iPhone app

Insurance firm Swiftcover says its iPhone app has helped two hikers find each other in snowbound Swedish mountains after they became separated.

The app, which is called Stuck, uses geo-location tech to allow people to post a Twitter-style message about their locations or situations. This info is then uploaded to a map of the world with a time stamp.

Other iPhone users can then click on the stamp and, using Google maps, zoom in to locate the person who posted the Stuck.

So when Nico Vittorio and Paul Alonso became separated in the Sarek National Park region of Sweden they pair used Stuck’s ‘Near-Me’ function – which flags up other users nearby – to locate each other, tracking their progress until their paths met.

The app was developed by swiftcover.com’s innovation lab and has been downloaded 10,000 times since it was launched in January.