Table Mountain claims two lives

Two men, a foreign national and a local guide from Cape Town died on Table Mountain on New Year's Day 2018.

At least 500 people were trapped on Table Mountain for more than 5 hours while rescuers made use of the cable car in order to perform the rescue operation.

The rescue operation started at approximately 5pm on Monday 1 January 2018, shortly after three climbers were spotted dangling from their abseiling ropes on a section of the mountain called Arrow Final.

It appeared that the three climbers fell while abseiling down Arrow Final and although their abseiling ropes did not break, the men died on impact. The third victim, a female tourist from abroad, performed CPR on one of the men, but was unable to resuscitate him.

Initially a helicopter was deployed but was unable to get close enough to the casualties. The decision was then taken to make use of the cable car, leaving hundreds of visitors stranded on top of the mountain.

The last visitors were only brought down the mountain at about 12h30am on 2 January 2018 in temperatures well below 10 degrees.

The names of the victims have not been released, and police are investigating the incident.

Article ID : 1204