A BRITISH climber has plunged to his death while attempting to descend from one of the tallest mountains in Spain.
The mountaineer, 28, fell nearly 60 metres (200ft) shortly after reaching the summit of Torrecerredo, the highest peak of the popular Picos de Europa range, which forms part of the Cantabrian Mountains.
The Englishman, who has not been named, was about 20 metres (65ft) below the 2,649m (8,690ft) summit when the accident happened, according to Spanish authorities.
Emergency services received an alert at 1.27pm on Thursday afternoon that a young man had lost his footing and plunged into a vertical gully.
The SEPA fire rescue group and a medical helicopter were immediately dispatched to the scene.
Two Guardia Civil mountain rescue specialists from nearby Cangas de Onis were flown in to collect evidence and recover personal belongings scattered across the slope.
The victim’s body was then extracted by winch and taken by helicopter to La Morgal in Llanera, before being transferred to the Asturias Institute of Legal Medicine for a post-mortem examination.
Just 18 minutes after the first call, emergency services received a separate alert after a 54-year-old French woman suffered a suspected double leg break on the nearby Jou Sin Tierre peak.
The woman had to wait for authorities to confirm the death of the British climber before she could receive medical attention.
She was treated at the scene for a suspected fracture of the tibia and fibula before being flown to the Hospital del Oriente in Arriondas.
In May, rescuers found the body of a British man who made a desperate emergency call after becoming lost in the Picos de Europa mountain range.
The mountaineer, 61, told emergency services in Castilla y Leon that he was ‘lost and exhausted’ after a day hiking.
The tired Brit said he could not pinpoint his exact location after a band of poor weather sweeping in dramatically reduced visibility.
He was eventually found dead by rescuers in the Moeño channel.
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