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| The incident happened in Portocolom, Mallorca |
Two tourists, who are believed to be British, have died after falling from a cliff they were attempting to climb in Majorca.
The victims, aged between 40 and 50, reportedly fell from rocks in Portocolom, on the east coast of the island.
The two men are thought to have died at the scene when they landed between two caves known locally as Cala Mitjana and Cala Sa Nau.
According to reports, they were part of a group of four people – but officials on the island said only two of them fell into the sea and died.
It is thought they were practising psicobloc – a sport consisting in climbing walls or cliffs without ropes – when the incident happened.
A member of the public spotted a body floating in the sea and alerted the emergency services, according to Diario de Mallorca.
The Guardia Civil, the Maritime Safety Agency and local police rushed to the scene of the incident at 1pm today, Majorca Daily Bulletin reports.
When they arrived, they also found another body in a nearby cave.
The bodies of the victims were recovered from the water and taken to the port in Portocolom.
Reports say that the two deceased were English-speaking, but their identity has not been confirmed yet.
The Civil Guard said an investigation has been launched into the deaths to determine the circumstances of the incident.
Miguel Chicon, Head of the Balearic Maritime Rescue Centre in Palma, said: “A witness rang the equivalent of the 999 service here in Spain to report two men were in difficulties in the water.
“It may well have been they were climbers practising what’s known here as psicobloc because of the type of footwear they had on but that is not something I can confirm at this stage.
“A Coastguard vessel called the Salvamar Illes Pitiuses was mobilised as well as a Coastguard helicopter called the Helimar 205 and a Civil Guard helicopter with specialist GEA officers who are trained to carry out sub-aquatic rescues.
“In the end a privately-owned vessel that was in the area recovered the body of one of the men because the water was too shallow for our vessel to get near and took it back to Portocolom Port.
“The body of the other man was recovered in a joint operation between that same privately-owned vessel and the Salvamar Illes Pitiuses.
“CPR was practised on both men but there was nothing that could be done to save their lives and they were pronounced dead at the scene.”
Local reports said a “tourist witness” who saw one of the men fall practised CPR on him while he waited for emergency responders.
Well-placed sources described him as British but said they couldn’t confirm if he was with the two men that fell to their deaths.
The post-mortems will seek to determine if the victims died from drowning or head injuries linked to a rock fall or the possibility they landed on rocks as they fell.
Psicobloc is a type of climbing characterised by its height and being on the water.
Water Sports Mallorca explains: “It consists of climbing on the water and without rope.
“The sea, pool, swamp, lake … are the only protection against the fall. You have to be careful because the routes are long, very high and sharp, and the higher you are the more danger there is of falling because of tiredness.”
MIRROR
