Brit, 21, somehow survives 130ft plunge off Austrian 'stairway to heaven' mountain ladder while taking a photo - two years after UK climber fell 300ft to his death at the same spot
The unnamed 21-year-old Brit was seriously injured after he slipped while attempting to take pictures of his friends on the so-called 'Himmelsleiter' - a notorious attraction on the Donnerkogel Mountain near the town of Annaberg im Lammertal, Salzburg province.
The man had somehow removed his safety harness to take the photograph of his companions when he slipped and fell, reportedly plunging 131 ft to the ground, police said.
Local district mayor Werner Quehenberger said: 'He was incredibly lucky that he actually stopped after [131 feet] and didn't carry on falling.'
He said that the British man had suffered severe back injuries.
Three helicopters were needed to get the climber to safety.
Rescue teams had to perform a risky manoeuvre because the ladder was too close to the helicopter being used to pull the man into the aircraft.
The Brit was stabilised by a team of alpine rescuers who used ropes and a helicopter to extract him from the steep climbing route.
The rescue involved a large-scale operation with several mountain rescue specialists and emergency services working together under challenging conditions.
A video and images show the man being secured by ropes as medics and alpine police work to lift him to safety.
A spokesperson for the Salzburg Mountain Rescue Service said the area is popular with hikers and climbers, but also dangerous for those who underestimate the terrain.
He said: 'People are often drawn to these ladders for the thrill and for social media pictures, but the risk of falling is extremely high.'
This latest incident has renewed calls for clearer signage and stricter access regulations to prevent further accidents.
The climber's terrifying fall off the Austrian mountain comes two year's after a 42-year-old British tourist plunged to his death after dropping nearly 300ft while climbing the same ladder.
Investigators ruled out any third-party negligence in his fall.
Two helicopters were deployed to retrieve the man's body from under the ladder.
The accident also comes after a month after a British tourist died in a horrific paragliding crash along with his pilot in Turkey.
The Briton, 22, and his pilot, 29, leaped from a 6,500ft mountain at the Babadag paragliding spot in Fethiye in a tandem jump.
But shortly after take-off their parachute broke and they plunged onto the rocks at the steep mountainside, according to Turkish media reports.
Other paragliders in the area alerted emergency services about the crash, with rescuers rushing to the scene only to discover that the British holidaymaker and the experienced pilot had died.
Their bodies were taken to a nearby hospital morgue for autopsy.
Local authorities have launched an investigation into the accident, with officials examining the crash scene and the paragliding equipment.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
6 hours ago
- The Guardian
‘Why would you take away a parking place?': the city where anyone can build an urban oasis
In a quiet corner of Vienna's well-to-do 18th district, Jana is explaining how her assembly of wooden decking and planters is bringing a bit of greenery to the area. 'There's not a single tree on this whole street – it's just parking spaces on both sides.' This is a grätzloase (neighbourhood-oasis), a miniature park tucked into the side of the road. With the blessing of the city hall, more than 100 of them have sprung up across Vienna. The scheme has been growing since 2015, and its proponents say it's struck a rare balance for urban projects: cheap, community-driven and appreciated by local people. In theory, anyone in Vienna can build one. A city-funded organisation, Local Agenda 21, provides grants of up to €5,000 to cover construction costs and helps with the admin. Jana first heard about the scheme at a party in 2019 from someone who had recently put a parklet together. 'A few weeks later I just went by and looked at it and thought: 'This is so cool,'' she recalls. But it took until the winter of 2020 for Jana and her flatmates to consider building one themselves. 'It's kind of complicated; you need to fill in a lot of paperwork,' she says. This involved three different departments of city government, and her group needed to cost everything up before they started. But she had a couple of things on her side. First, she lived with a carpenter, who could handle the nitty-gritty of actually building it. Second, the organisation told her there was another parklet being taken down on the other side of town that they could pick up and reassemble. The final hurdle was getting the street on board, with some residents pushing back against the idea. 'While we were building it, I remember there were a few people looking at it very weirdly. A few days later, we had neighbours say: 'Why would you take away a parking space?'' Jana says. But they seem to have come around. This spring the grätzloase saw more construction as they installed a retractable sunroof. 'We had a weekend of building together. Everybody that walked by said: 'Oh! This is so nice.'' The parklet is a huge source of pride for Jana, but it comes with certain challenges. In winter she has to deal with clearing snow from the decking, and during the summer the plants need watering every day. The grätzloase also includes a box where neighbours can exchange their unwanted things. 'Sometimes people just leave trash there, and it's up to me to figure out how to get rid of it,' Jana says. And as the person responsible for putting together the parklet, she's also responsible for taking it down – should she ever move, she'll need to find a new custodian or be forced to deconstruct it. Vienna consistently scores highly on environmental and livability rankings – even if its quality-of-life crown was nicked by Copenhagen in June. But these accolades obscure the fact that some districts are distinctly lacking in greenery, particularly in the centre-west of the city. 'Vienna has more journeys by car than 26 cities in Europe, including London, Paris and Berlin,' says Rafael Prieto-Curiel, a researcher at the Complexity Science Hub in the city's third district. He has collated mobility data from hundreds of places around the world. Despite its excellent public transport network, a quarter of journeys in Vienna are still taken by private vehicles – a figure that ought to be a lot lower, he argues. Removing parking spaces could be one way of encouraging this. 'Asphalt gets super hot – so if you have less asphalt, the city is more livable,' Prieto-Curiel adds. Research shows Vienna saw nearly 50 days of extreme heat last year, a number that's been on the rise. He would like the city to go further and commit to tearing out paving en masse, as Paris has done recently. Building parklets could be one way of warming people up to the idea. Sabrina Halkic, the managing director of Local Agenda 21, describes them as an example of 'tactical urbanism' – low-cost, often citizen-led improvements to the built environment. She sees the grätzloasen as a gateway to further changes. 'Once people see that something can be done to make the situation better, they develop this bigger vision,' she says. In 2021, her organisation built a grätzloase in collaboration with a school: 'We had [a parklet on] these four parking spaces. After those were a success, they said: 'Why don't we change the whole street?'' Last year they convinced the city to pedestrianise the entire road. Jana and Sabrina agree one of the scheme's biggest pluses is it creates new places to hang out. In a city sometimes characterised – perhaps unfairly – as grumpy and unwelcoming, more communal space means a chance to chat to people you wouldn't speak to otherwise. One Friday evening a group of friends is braving the drizzle to drink cocktails and catch up at the grätzloase. Even later on, at a time when some neighbours may start complaining about noise, it's nothing but smiles and 'good evenings' from people passing by. Jana compares her parklet with the fate of a restaurant one block over. It closed down a decade ago, with its chestnut tree-lined garden paved over to make way for new apartments. The grätzloase – a place where friends can meet for the sake of meeting – is showing that things can be different.
Daily Mail
10 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Harrowing death of explorer trapped in cave for 17 days who became morbid tourist attraction after his body was stolen
It has been 100 years since a cave explorer became trapped in a Kentucky cave for 17 days and died there after efforts to rescue him were unsuccessful. The harrowing ordeal of Floyd Collins, 37, made global headlines at the time, as reporters closely followed the tragic endeavour, drawing thousands of people to the scene. A century has passed since the January 1925 tragedy, but Collins' story remains etched in history as the site of his death remains a morbid tourist attraction. A curious explorer since the age of six, Collins spent much of his time exploring rocky terrains and crevices. In 1918, he discovered the Great Crystal Cave in the Flint Ridge Cave system in south-central Kentucky. Wanting to make the caves more accessible to visitors, he decided to open up Sand Cave and began working to enlarge the small passage. On January 30, 1925, the explorer became trapped in a narrow crawl-way 55 ft below ground after a dislodged 27-pound boulder wedged his ankle against the cave wall. Collins desperately tried to free himself, but to no avail. A passerby miraculously heard the explorer's cries for help, and a rescue team was quickly formed to get him out. In the days that followed, Collins' ordeal became a national spectacle, with thousands of rescuers, engineers, geologists, journalists and even spectators rushing to the site. At one point, the mouth of the cave was flooded by thousands of curious onlookers and vendors selling food, drinks and souvenirs. According to the Kentucky National Guard, at least 50,000 people may have gathered there. But by day four of the rescue mission, a rock collapsed into the cave where Collins was, blocking the passageway used to pass him food and water. It took rescuers several more days to reach Collins, but by the time they found him, he had died three days prior - most likely from thirst, hunger and hypothermia. Recalling the day they reached his body, rescuers told the Kentucky National Guard: 'No sounds came from Collins at all, no respiration, no movement, and the eyes were sunken, indicating, according to physicians, extreme exhaustion going with starvation.' Sand Cave was sealed off and it took three more months for his body to be recovered. Although Collins was not known publicly for most of his life, the fame he gained from the rescue efforts and his death resulted in him being memorialised on his tombstone as the 'Greatest Cave Explorer Ever Known'. Due to wide coverage on his death, Collins' case has sparked curiosity throughout the years. At one point, his body was placed in a glass coffin on top of the cave to draw tourists, and several attempts were made to steal his body as a result. In one shocking instance in 1929, a thief managed to steal Collins' body, but police managed to track the criminal down and recover the corpse, which somehow lost a leg along the process. Collins' body was finally removed from the site in 1961 and was forever laid to rest at the Mammoth Cave Baptist Church. But his story continues to spark curiosity, with many explorers still flocking to Sand Cave, which is now known as Mammoth Cave National Park - a World Heritage Site.
Sky News
13 hours ago
- Sky News
Fourteen injured after Coney Beach Pleasure Park ride 'derails' in Porthcawl
Thirteen children and an adult have been injured after a rollercoaster appeared to derail at an amusement park at a seaside town in Wales. Emergency services were called to Coney Beach Pleasure Park in Porthcawl just before 6pm on Wednesday following an incident involving the park's Wacky Worm ride. Images taken at the scene and footage posted on social media appears to show part of the children's rollercoaster off the track and adults helping youngsters off the ride. In a statement posted on Facebook, Coney Beach Porthcawl said: "Due to an incident on a third-party ride not owned by Coney Beach, we were instructed by the police to clear the site for further investigation. "We apologise for the disruption and will be providing refunds to affected guests as soon as possible. "We will be releasing instructions on refunds shortly. "We thank you for your cooperation." On its website, the ride is described as "the perfect first thrill ride for the kids" which will "get them screaming". In July, the amusement park dating back more than 100 years announced "this season at Coney Beach will be our last" and that it would be closing for good in October. South Wales Police said officers were called to the amusement park in Bridgend at around 5.50pm yesterday "following an accident involving one of the rides". The force said 13 children and an adult "sustained minor injuries" with some requiring hospital treatment. It added the amusement park would remain closed on Thursday "while officers and health and safety personnel carry out their investigation". A Welsh Ambulance Service spokesperson said: "We were called shortly before 6pm to reports of an incident at Coney Beach, Porthcawl. "We sent three emergency ambulances, three Cymru high acuity response unit paramedics, two duty operational managers and our Hazardous Area Response Team to the scene.
