Cape Town - “He was lying at a horrible angle. It was clear he had broken more than a few bones.”
This was the description that a hiker gave of the Athlone man who fell to his death on Lion’s Head on Sunday.
Merle Collins, spokeswoman for South African National Parks, said 47-year-old Ebrahim Salie had been walking with his daughter when the accident happened.
“Apparently he slipped and fell down (the mountain),” she told the Cape Argus.
“It happened so quickly. He died at the scene.”
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the hiker who rushed to his aid said he had found the severely injured Salie.
“He had cuts all over his body and his hand was swelling,” he said.
“I started checking for a pulse but after two minutes of searching I couldn’t find it.”
The hiker had been on a weekly trek up the popular mountain when he had run into a distraught-looking man standing at the first ladder which marks the steep ascent up Lion’s Head.
“He told me he needed the number for emergency services because someone had fallen off the mountain,” the hiker said.
“Even from up there, I could see the man on the ground. He fell a very long way,” he said.
The hiker rushed to Salie’s aid.
“I ran into his daughter on the way down,” he said. “She was shocked. I told her everything would be fine.”
However, when he got to Salie it was too late. He waited at his body for 45 minutes until paramedics arrived.
“I’m not a hero. If this happened to my brother, father or uncle, I would want people to do the same for them,” said the hiker.
This is the third time in three weeks that someone had fallen in the area.
Collins said people should exercise caution on the mountain.