A haunting photo shows a tourist stepping up to the edge of Zimbabwe’s Victoria Falls — just moments before he plunged more than 350 feet to his death, according to local media.
Roy George Tinashe Dikinya, 40, was taking turns with his family to take photos from the top of the huge waterfall when he tumbled over the edge, witnesses told Zimbabwe’s Newsday.
“We were alerted by the woman’s scream and she told us that he had slipped and fallen,” one told the paper of Dikinya, who was wearing sandals and was clutching several things in his left hand in the photo.
“Because of the showers and the mist, we could not trace him after that,” the witness said.
Rescuers with the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Authority found body parts trapped at the bottom of the gorge, which is at least 350-feet high, the Chronicle said.
The body parts “are trapped between rocks,” the authority’s spokesman, Tinashe Farawo, told the paper.
“We haven’t been able to positively identify him because of the location where the body is trapped, but we are certain that it his body,” he said.
“Right now we are in communication with other security experts including the army to try and find ways of retrieving the body,” he said, with one option trying to use a military helicopter.
Government Minister Mangaliso Ndlovu sent his “sincere condolences” to the family of the tourist who is from Zimbabwe’s capital Harare, more than 400 miles from the falls, according to The Herald.
“This is a rare, tragic and unfortunate incident to be witnessed at the mighty Victoria Falls,” Ndlovu said, while promising “all necessary precautions will be taken to guard against recurrence of such an unfortunate incident.”
It is just the latest tragedy involving people taking photos from dangerous spots. Just weeks ago, a Brazilian man died after falling from a waterfall taking a selfie.
