A British man has died of a suspected heart attack after ascending to the crater of Mount Vesuvius during a family holiday.
The tourist, named by Italian media as Mark John Irwin, died on Sunday after climbing the volcano near Naples, in southern Italy, during the visit with his wife and two children.
The 56-year-old was treated with a defibrillator brought by local guides for 40 minutes, it was reported. Irwin had travelled to Italy from his home in the US.
A spokesperson for the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said: “We are assisting the family of a British man who died in Italy and are in contact with the local authorities.”
Paolo Cappelli, president of an association of mountain guides who work on the 1,132 metre high volcano, told the Telegraph: “He was right up at the summit when he collapsed. His wife told us that he had had an operation on his heart two or three months ago. We think he may have had a heart attack.
“It’s very sad. It is pretty rare for this to happen on Vesuvius. We have one death every one or two years, which is not much considering the fact that about 3,000 people climb to the top of the volcano each day.”
Italy has been in the midst of a heatwave in the past few days that has seen many parts of the country sweltering in temperatures of up to 40C. The high temperatures have spread across southern Europe and resulted in the death of six tourists in Greece, including a 68-year-old German man in the Sougia region of Crete.
Rescuers are searching for two missing French women, aged 73 and 64, on the island of Sikinos and a 59-year-old American man on Amorgos.
