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Phone-obsessed tourist falls to his death playing mobile games at sacred Buddhist mountain

The young man fell 26 feet from the side of the stone staircase. (AsiaWire)
The young man fell 26 feet from the side of the stone staircase. (AsiaWire)

A young man visiting one of China’s sacred Buddhist mountains fell to his death while playing on his mobile phone.

The tourist, in his 20s, was resting outside the famous temple known as Flesh Palace at Mount Jiuhua in China, when he leaned back into thin air and tumbled to the ground.

Security footage at the popular scenic spot at Qingyang, in East China’s Anhui Province, captured the moment the young man fell eight metres (26 feet) from the side of the stone staircase.

Two women resting below can be seen fleeing the area as the victim’s body rolls into view.

According to nearby staff, the tourist had been traveling with his father and the pair had climbed the steps to the Flesh Palace to pray to the Buddhist gods.

He’d stopped to rest and play on his phone, taking a seat on the waist-high fence that had been installed to prevent tourists from accidentally falling over the cliff edge.

Chinese media suggested the man was ‘too absorbed’ by his phone and forgot that he had nothing to lean his back on, shifting his weight behind him and ultimately tumbling off the cliff.

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Staff at the tourist hotspot as well as local authorities are dealing with the aftermath of the tragedy together with the victim’s family, who are reportedly from Anhui’s Lujiang County.

Mount Jiuhua is one of China’s four sacred mountains of Buddhism together with mountains Wutai, Emei and Putuo.