A 45-year-old man who suffered a stroke in the Pirin Mountain was saved in what appears to be the first ever helicopter rescue operation of the Bulgarian government.

The man got the stroke around noon on Thursday in the Tipitsite area at about 2600 m above the sea level.

The operation for his rescue started shortly after that at the order of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov using a Mi-8 helicopter of the Bulgarian government.

The man, whose left side of the body was paralyzed, was carried to a more accessible location by mountain rescuers, and was eventually transported by helicopter to the hospital in the town of Razlog around 6 pm, announced Rumen Baryakov, head of the Mountain Rescue Service in the Bansko Resort.

The Cabinet press service reported that the Prime Minister ordered the helicopter in after it became clear that this is the only way to access the man with the stroke.

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