Two Killed Climbing Table Mountain at South Africa

The bodies of a tourist and his guide have been recovered from South Africa’s Table Mountain following an accident which trapped hundreds of people at the top of the popular attraction.

The man, his local guide and a second tourist are reported to have been using ropes to scale the front of the Cape Town mountain when they fell on Monday.

Rescuers then used the cable car to reach the surviving climber.

But the bodies were not recovered until first light on Tuesday.

The tourists are understood to be of Asian origin, while the guide was a South African, a spokeswoman for South Africa’s Sanparks, which runs the country’s national parks, told the BBC.

According to local media reports, the cable car service – which takes thousands of people up and down the mountain every day – was out of action for more than five hours.

About 800 people were eventually able to get down at around 22:00 local time (20:00 GMT).

John Marais, of Wilderness Search and Rescue, explained to South African news site TimesLive that after their accident, the two climbers were seen “dangling” on ropes about 150 metres below the cable car station.

A picture shared on social media shows one rescuer administering CPR to a person on a narrow ledge.

Source: BBC