Waterfall Death: Brit Killed In Australia

A 20-year-old British tourist has died after falling from a waterfall in New South Wales, Australia.

The man was walking with friends in the Blue Mountains near Sydney when he slipped over the edge of Wentworth Falls, according to police.

Emergency services - including police, paramedics and rescue teams - were called and the man, who has not been named, was declared dead at the scene.

The accident happened at noon local time on Sunday (1am GMT).

The man's body has now been recovered after a search by rescue crews and a police helicopter.

A police spokeswoman said: "The location is extremely rugged and difficult to access, despite the rescue crew being very experienced."

The man was in a group of eight friends and had travelled from Sydney's Bondi area to the Blue Mountains for a picnic and a walk along a marked trail through the bush.

It is not believed the grouop was part of an organised tour.

One witness, who was at the bottom of the waterfalls, said he saw a group of French and English people "mucking around" on the rocks.

"It's very slippery, then they went down to the next one. I knew something was going to happen and then we just saw panic and a 20-year-old boy fell over 100 metres down the waterfall."

His family and the British Consulate in Australia have been notified of his death and a report will be prepared for the coroner, police said.

A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said: "We are aware of the death of a British national in New South Wales, Australia, on January 6, 2013, and we are providing consular assistance to the family at this difficult time."

The Blue Mountains national park is about 37 miles west of Sydney and covers about a million hectares, according to the Destination New South Wales website .

A World Heritage site, the landscape of huge cliffs, deep rainforest gullies, sandstone canyons and waterfalls forms part of the traditional country of the Aboriginal people.

Wentworth Falls is a three-tiered waterfall near a town of the same name in the Blue Mountains. The overall height of the falls is 187 metres.