TWO missing siblings have been miraculously rescued after surviving in a bear-infested forest for 96 hours.
Grisha Krepp, 12 and his 10-year-old sister Vika were found alive after being lost for four nights in a wild Russian forest as their pet beagle dogs "scared off wolves".
They went missing on Tuesday while on a fishing trip with their grandfather on the Lipka River.
Some 650 law enforcement, rescuers and volunteers launched a massive search operation in the forest and swamps of the Slobodo-Turinsky district - filled with wild wolves and brown bears.
Dozens of teams covered more than 800 miles searching for them.
Fortunately, the pair was rescued alive alongside their two pet beagle dogs who stayed with the children - warming them at night and keeping the deadly predators away.
Rescuers said they were "scared and cold", bitten by insects, hungry, and dehydrated when they were found by a team scouring the forest on an all-terrain vehicle.
Both of them revealed they had eaten quail eggs to survive their ordeal.
Vika and Grisha were given warm food and water before being handed over to paramedics, as the rescuers cared for the dogs who saved their lives.
They were taken to the hospital where they were reunited with their mother Alfiya as they underwent health checks.
A relieved Alfiya hugged the two kids and said: "I wasn’t worried. I believed in you! I knew you were fine.
"I was confident in you, in Rocky, in Ryzhiy. Son, I believed you."
Rescuer Igor Grekov who found the two kids deep inside the jungle said: "Four of us were riding on two ATVs when they were discovered.
" We stopped and shouted every 200 metres. They heard us, but could not shout back, since their voices were already strained.
"They didn’t panic. I was actually surprised."
They were eventually found four and a half miles from the village of Burmakina, where they had gone missing near the family’s remote country cottage used in summer.
Rescuers think that Vika and Grisha walked tens of miles as they sought to find their way out of the forest.
One theory is that returning from fishing, the children had run ahead of their grandfather to get to the village to buy drinks, but took a wrong turn.
“They told their grandfather ‘don’t rush, you will catch up with us,’ but without realising it, they were going in a different direction,” their mother said.
She said she “blamed herself” for leaving the children with their grandfather while she was working in the city.
Authorities feared the children might have died after a bear was spotted guarding its prey who refused to move.
