In front of his friend: Boy (10) falls to his death on a rock face

Laatsch (Italy) – Two friends (10 and 11) met on Friday afternoon at a village playground to run around in the fresh air. Then they came up with a fatal idea: They wanted to climb a steep rock face in the Alpine village, which is located at around 1,000 meters above sea level. The darkness surprised the children. The ten-year-old boy fell. Any help came too late for him.

About the terrible one Accident The Italian news channel Rai News first reported. Accordingly, the boys were in the playground in Laatsch in Vinschgau (Italy) adjacent steep forest area broken up. By dusk they must have already made it high up. But now they were stuck, unable to move forward or back. The friends desperately called for help. Woodworkers are said to have heard the children, according to the television station. One of the boys is also said to have made an emergency call on his cell phone.

Friend is flown to hospital

But before help arrived, the younger man fell into the depths in front of his friend at around 5 p.m. According to Südtirol News, it should fall around a hundred meters and immediately to have been. His friend therefore clung to the rocks as the Mountain rescue came. He was flown to a clinic by helicopter and is said to have remained largely uninjured, according to consistent reports. The rescue operation in the sloping terrain took almost four hours.

In the South Tyrolean town of 600 souls Alps there is deep sadness. An Advent party planned by the volunteer fire department for Saturday was canceled. “We are all deeply shocked because so many of us in the village have children of the same age who often play football together. We are a village with 600 inhabitants and everyone knows everyone,” Josef Thurner, mayor of the municipality of Mals, to which the village belongs, was quoted as saying by Rai News. The Italian police are now investigating how exactly the tragic accident occurred.