Brazil ? A 17-year-old Oregon exchange student missing since the weekend was found safe Thursday in northeastern Brazil, ending an intense search by Brazilian authorities and the U.S. Embassy.

Mykensie Martin arrived at a police station in the coastal city of Salvador, about 690 miles northeast of Brazil’s capital, Brasilia, said Lt. Alexandre Silva, of the federal police in the state of Bahia.

She was accompanied to the police station by a young Brazilian from Salvador identified as Marcos Alves, a waiter at a beachside restaurant. The two arrived holding hands and stayed arm in arm at the police station as a swarm of photographers snapped pictures.

The high school senior from Bend, Ore., did not speak to reporters in Salvador. Federal police spokeswoman Monica Horta said Alves helped Martin escape being robbed and assaulted Tuesday at a Salvador beach after she arrived there from Brasilia on an overnight bus.

U.S. Embassy spokesman John Wilcock said her worried parents were notified she was safe just before they boarded a flight from Miami to Sao Paulo to join in the search.