Stock image of Majorca
(Picture: pixabay)Two English speaking holidaymakers have died after falling from the cliff in Majorca they were attempting to climb.
Initial reports said another man has been injured and a fourth, both also described locally as British, were understood to be missing.
But officials have now confirmed only the two men who died were involved in the tragedy.
They are believed to have fallen from rocks in Portocolom in the south-east of Majorca into the sea.
Police are understood to have found one of the dead men in a cave close to the spot where he fell. Coastguards recovered the other body from the sea.
The alarm was raised around 1pm on Tuesday afternoon when Civil Guard, coastguards and local police based in nearby Santanyi were sent to the scene.
Although initial local reports described the pair as British holidaymakers, they were subsequently described as “English speakers” and are believed to be American.
There has not yet been any official confirmation from Civil Guard or police about the nationalities of the dead pair.
The mens’ bodies have been taken to Portocolom Port near the scene of the tragedy.
Post-mortems are due to take place on Wednesday. The post-mortems will seek to determine if the victims died from drowning or head injuries linked to a rock fall or the possibility they landed on rocks as they fell.
The men were said to have been practicing deep-water soloing, also known as psicobloc; it is a form of solo rock climbing which relies solely upon the presence of water at the base of a climb to protect against injury from falls from the generally high-difficulty routes.
The exact spot in Portocolom where the men fell to their deaths is a cliff between two coves known locally as Cala Mitjana and Cala Sa Nau.
A regional TV station broadcast footage of waiting Civil Guard patrol cars with their sirens flashing at Portocolom Port as they waited for the bodies to arrive.
Miguel Chicon, Head of the Balearic Maritime Rescue Centre in Palma, said a witness raised the alarm around midday.
He said: “A witness rang the equivalent of the 999 service here in Spain to report two men were in difficulties in the water.
“It may well have been they were climbers practising what’s known here as Psicobloc because of the type of footwear they had on but that is not something I can confirm at this stage.
“A Coastguard vessel called the Salvamar Illes Pitiuses was mobilised as well as a Coastguard helicopter called the Helimar 205 and a Civil Guard helicopter with specialist GEA officers who are trained to carry out sub-aquatic rescues.
“In the end a privately-owned vessel that was in the area recovered the body of one of the men because the water was too shallow for our vessel to get near and took it back to Portocolom Port.
“The body of the other man was recovered in a joint operation between that same privately-owned vessel and the Salvamar Illes Pitiuses.
“CPR was practised on both men but there was nothing that could be done to save their lives and they were pronounced dead at the scene.”
