Tragedy has struck a British family holidaying in Australia after a father and his nine-year-old son were killed by a landslide while hiking and the mother and another son were critically injured.
A 15-year-old girl from the same family survived and walked away from the scene – with the support of emergency services staff – in a remote part of the Blue Mountains in New South Wales, officers added.
She was later treated for shock.
The boy and his 49-year-old father died on the Wentworth Falls hiking track, west of Sydney on Monday, New South Wales police said.
Their bodies were later recovered by police and the area has now been closed to the public until further notice.
The family’s 50-year-old mother and a second son, who is 14, were treated at the scene by critical care paramedics before being airlifted out of the valley by a rescue helicopter, New South Wales ambulance spokesman Stewart Clarke told reporters.
After being assessed, they would be taken to “the most appropriate hospital,” Mr Clarke added, with surgery a possibility.
He called the situation “heartbreaking”, adding that the patients had “significant head and abdominal injuries” and had to be sedated and intubated to help them breathe before being winched to safety.
The five were holidaying in Australia, police said, some of the four million tourists drawn to the Blue Mountains National Park each year.
Weeks of wet weather in Sydney preceded the landslip, leaving the area “extremely dangerous and unstable” for rescuers, Mr Clarke said.
Detective Superintendent John Nelson, from the Blue Mountains area command, called it “a tragic scene”, adding that rescuers were “working under quite arduous conditions.
“A girl is walking out at the moment, who is obviously clearly [and] extremely distressed,” he said.
Officers would try to speak to her to find out what happened, he said.
Weather conditions were reasonable, he said, adding that he understood the hiking trail was open at the time.
Emergency services were called to Wentworth Pass around 1.40pm, after being contacted by someone who was “in or near the group”, Mr Clarke said.
Police helicopters, local officers and a specialist rescue team were deployed to the remote location in dense bushland, about a 90-minute walk from the car park.
The injured pair were winched out about 6pm, Mr Clarke said.
“[It is] exceptionally confronting and heartbreaking, especially when you start involving children,” he said.
Ambulance chaplains and police support officers also attended “to support our people”, Mr Clarke added.
The British Consulate is assisting.
