WATERFORD MAN JOHN Power, who had been reported missing in the Netherlands at the beginning of last month has turned up safe and well in Germany.

The 20-year-old had moved to the Netherlands 18 months ago, but disappeared on 9 June after a party in Maastricht. His family have made a number of appeals since then and travelled both to Maastricht and just last week to Berlin to liaise with police.

Speaking to TheJournal.ie this evening, his father Michael Power confirmed John walked into the Irish Embassy in Berlin earlier today. He said he had been travelling with a group of people through Germany, Hungary, Croatia and Italy before returning to Berlin. He told his parents his rucksack, which contained all of his electronic devices and his passport, had been stolen.

“We had been thinking the worst, so I’m thrilled, delighted, excited,” Michael said. He and his wife have spoken to John over the phone and they will travel to Berlin tomorrow morning to see him.

Other people can probably describe it a lot better than me but when something like this happens it feels like you’re missing a part of your body. I wasn’t whole and I knew I wouldn’t be whole again until we found him.

“I want to say thank you to everyone. This is a very lonely place to be, you are thinking ‘what do I do?’ and when it’s in another country you don’t know who to talk to to raise the profile,” he said. “I know people were praying for us and that people were genuine in their concern and we appreciate that.”