Man falls to his death while playing football on Austrian mountain
Man falls to his death while playing football at the the top of an Austrian mountain
- A 20-year-old man fell 165ft down the side of a cliff in Austria to his death
- The man had hiked up the Predigtstuhl mountain near Ebenthal, southern Austria
- He was playing football with a friend on a plateau around 820ft high when he fell
- Rescue teams deployed but took three hours to reach him due to arduous terrain
A 20-year-old man fell 165ft to his death on Sunday while playing football on top of a small mountain in his native Austria.
The man, who is yet to be named, had hiked to the plateau on the Predigtstuhl mountain near Ebenthal in the Carinthia region of southern Austria with a friend, also aged 20, where they began to kick a football back and forth.
The man was chasing after a stray ball during their game at around 4pm when he slipped at the edge of the plateau at an altitude of around 820ft.
He fell off the side of the mountain and tumbled 165ft over steep, rocky terrain.
His friend who witnessed the incident immediately called the emergency services, but the victim’s body could not be retrieved for over three hours due to its precarious position on the mountain.
The man, who is yet to be named, fell off a plateau around 820ft high on the Predigtstuhl mountain and tumbled 165ft over steep, rocky terrain to his death (pictured: mountain rescue teams make their way to the scene of the accident)
The man, who is yet to be named, had hiked to the plateau on the Predigtstuhl mountain near Ebenthal in the Carinthia region of southern Austria with a friend, also aged 20, where they began to kick a football back and forth. He fell chasing a stray ball and slipped off the edge of the plateau
A group of rescue workers responded immediately to the emergency call following the accident.
The mountain rescue team dispatched a helicopter to come to the man’s aid, but he could not be recovered because the terrain where he had fallen was too steep for the helicopter to access.
The mountain rescuers therefore had to climb down the rocks themselves, a mission which took three hours over the dangerous rocky cliff face.
It is unclear whether the man, who Kleine-Zeitung reported was a native of the nearby Klagenfurt district, died immediately after his fall, but the rescue team confirmed he was dead by the time they reached him.
‘It was a very difficult and psychologically very demanding mission,’ said Kurt Muller, a member of the Klagenfurt Mountain Rescue team.
Two helicopters – mountain rescue helicopter C11 and a police chopper – were first deployed, but Muller said that ‘rescue by helicopter was not possible’ as a result of the harsh terrain that made landing the aircraft impossible.
Muller went on to say that 23 members of the rescue team were deployed, many of whom made their way to the site of the accident by securing themselves with ropes and climbing down the sheer cliff face.
Carinthia is the southernmost region in Austria and is home to the mountain’s of the Eastern Alps.
It is a popular region among extreme sports enthusiasts for its excellent skiing during winter and hiking routes in summer.
Carinthia is the southernmost region in Austria and is home to the mountain’s of the Eastern Alps (pictured: Falkert, Nockberge, in the Eastern Alps)
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