A young British climber has died after falling on a Spanish mountain.
The 20-year-old man, who has not been named, fell and injured himself on Wednesday while exploring an area known as Puente del Mono – which translates into English as Monkey Bridge – close to the village of El Chorro.
He was knocked unconscious and had gone into cardiac arrest by the time the first emergency responders arrived by helicopter to the mountains near Malaga.
Police attempted to rescue the man by winching him from the rocky surface, but he was later pronounced dead.
The alarm was raised yesterday at around 11am, and the climber is understood to have been crossing a protected climbing route called a via ferrata where a metal rail is bolted into the mountain that users can clip into and use as a safety line.
The area where the tragedy occurred is on the famous Caminito del Rey path.
A spokesman for the Guardia Civil in Malaga, making its first comment on the tragedy overnight, said: ‘Members of the specialist Civil Guard Greim mountain rescue team based in Alora near Malaga, supported by a Civil Guard helicopter based in Granada, have rescued the body of a young British man.
‘He had suffered a fall while he was crossing a via ferrata in the area known as Monkey Bridge near to El Chorro.
A British man fell and died while climbing a mountain near Malaga on Wednesday
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The area where the tragedy occurred is on the famous Caminito del Rey path
‘When officers reached the man he had gone into cardiac arrest.
‘Despite practicing CPR on him and evacuating him rapidly from the scene by helicopter to a nearby heliport where medical services were waiting, they were only able to confirm his death.’
It was not immediately clear this morning if the climber was on holiday or lives in Spain.
A post-mortem is now due to take place and police will report to an investigating magistrate who has been tasked with an ongoing court probe into the incident.
It comes after a daredevil British influencer died after falling from Spain’s highest bridge.
The 26-year digital creator is said to have plunged from the 630ft Castilla-La Mancha bridge in Talavera de la Reina, a 90-minute drive south-west of Madrid, over the Tagus River as he climbed it to film a social media stunt in mid-October.
Local councillor Macarena Munoz confirmed the tragedy as she said accessing the bridge was ‘totally banned’.
She added: ‘We have made it clear on several occasions that it’s not something that can be done in any circumstances.’
The unnamed British man is said to have been with a compatriot aged 24 when he plunged to his death.