Two French tourists en route to Nepal on their cycles were left stranded in a village in Uttar Pradesh at around midnight as they took a wrong shortcut suggested by Google Maps, police said on Friday.
"They had to go to Kathmandu in Nepal via Tanakpur from Pilibhit...Google Maps showed them a shortcut via Baheri in Bareilly, due to which they got lost and reached Churaili Dam," said a police official.
After tourists Brian Jacques Gilbert and Sebastian Francois Gabriel were spotted by some villagers cycling at night, they were, subsequently, taken to the police outpost in Bareily district's Churaili.
"When the villagers saw both the foreigners roaming on bicycles on a deserted road at 11 pm on Thursday, they could not understand their language. To avoid any incident with the two foreigners, they took both of them to the Churaili police outpost," a police official told news agency PTI.
After hearing about their ordeal, the police took the cyclists to the village headman's house to stay there for the night.
When senior police officer Anurag Arya was informed about the situation, he visited the French tourists and spoke with them. He, then, directed the police to guide them.
In the morning, the police sent Gilbert and Gabriel on their way with proper directions.
Gilbert and Gabriel flew from Paris to Delhi on January 7.
Source: India Today