Missing teen found alive a week after crashing down bank

Kathleen Bautista, 19, was located by search and rescue workers around 10.25am on Friday morning, ACT Policing confirmed to Daily Mail Australia. Photo / Facebook / ACT Police

A missing teenage girl has been found alive after almost a week after she her car plunged down a steep embankment in remote bushland.

Kathleen Bautista, 19, was located by search and rescue workers around 10.25am on Friday morning, ACT Policing confirmed to Daily Mail Australia.

Extraordinarily, the teenager described by friends as a 'social butterfly' survived by drinking water from the creek her car had eventually landed in, police said.

Members of an SES crew first found the damaged car in Cotter reserve area, west of the nation's capital. But Ms Bautista was not there.

Several minutes later, a police constable noticed a hand on the opposite ridge on the side of the gully. It was her - dehydrated, hungry and likely suffering from exposure.

'She was chatty and even started telling jokes,' police told a media conference on Friday afternoon.

'She was relieved and thanked us profusely... despite her circumstances, she was in good spirits'.

One of the officers in charge of the investigation called Kathleen's father, Ronnie, who said he gave out a scream of joy.

'I'm just ecstatic. Really happy and over the moon Kath's been found safe and sound,' a composed Mr Bautista told reporters.

The discovery came after police received new intelligence pinpointing the location of a phone call Ms Bautista made detected near Black Mountain on Saturday morning.

The 'bubbly' Canberra teen was supposed to be heading to her home at Gordon from a friend's house at Chapman, around 15 minutes away.

But she never arrived - her car plunging off the ledge, and according to the Canberra Times, striking as many as three objects on the way down.

Her black Hyundai i30, missing for six days, landed upside down in a creek - the same creek that would provide her with the sustenance to survive.

Ms Bautista was taken to Canberra Hospital. She had leg and abdominal injuries, but is in a stable condition.

Investigators had expressed concern for her welfare after messages she had texted to her boyfriend and family early on Saturday.

Cameras picked up friends of her family crying tears of joy at the news.

- Daily Mail