Australian police to retrieve bodies of UK father and son killed in landslide

Five members of the same family were caught up in the incident while on holiday.

The bodies of a British father and son killed in a landslide in Australia’s Blue Mountains will be retrieved on Tuesday (Lauren Turner/PA) (PA Archive)

The bodies of a British father and son killed in a landslide in Australia’s Blue Mountains will be retrieved on Tuesday.

Five members of the same family were caught in the landslide on Monday while on holiday in Australia, New South Wales Police said.

Blue Mountains Area Command acting superintendent John Nelson said the bodies of the 49-year-old father and nine-year-old boy were still at the scene of the landslide on Tuesday morning.

Speaking to radio station 2GB, Mr Nelson said emergency services were focused on caring for the two critically injured members of the family yesterday.

“That obviously takes some time, it’s a good 90-minute walk into where the landslip had occurred and the site is quite dangerous,” he said.

“They had to make that site as safe as possible for the rescue squads to provide that care, so hence we’re still in the recovery phase for the two people who didn’t survive.”

He said the 50-year-old woman and 14-year-old boy were in a critical condition at Westmead Hospital in Sydney.

They were taken to hospital with significant head and abdominal injuries following the incident on the walking track, which was reported to emergency services at around 1.40pm local time on Monday.

... extremely dangerous, extremely unstable environment...

NSW Ambulance's Stewart Clarke

The nine-year-old and his father died at the scene at Wentworth Pass in the Blue Mountains, some 100 miles west of Sydney, New South Wales police said.

A fifth member of the same family, a 15-year-old girl, was treated for shock.

Mr Nelson described the 15-year-old girl as “extremely distressed”.

Stewart Clarke, from NSW Ambulance, said the incident happened in an “extremely dangerous, extremely unstable environment”.

He described the situation as “heartbreaking”.

A Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) spokesperson said: “We are providing consular support to the family of a British couple and their children following an incident in Australia.

“We are in contact with the local authorities.”