Search for missing resumes after canyoning accident

Swiss police on Thursday resumed their search for two people still missing after a canyoning accident that killed 19 tourists.

Swiss police on Thursday resumed their search for two people still missing after a canyoning accident that killed 19 tourists — up to 13 of them Australians.

At dawn, police started dragging the bottom of Lake Brienz and searching rocks around the Saxeten mountain stream, where a flash flood turned an adventure holiday excursion into tragedy on Tuesday.

“We’ve got informal confirmation of 13 Australians missing, presumed to be amongst those that have been lost,” Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Tony Melville told Australian radio.

The Australian victims were thought to be 10 men and three women, aged between 19 and 31.

Swiss police said Wednesday the victims came from Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and Switzerland.

“Like all Australians I’m deeply distressed by this terrible tragedy,” Prime Minister John Howard said.

At least 19 people died and six were injured when a flash flood carrying rocks and debris crashed into the group of 53 canyoners in the Saxetenbach gorge, just south of Interlaken.

The sport involves exploring narrow canyons and fast-flowing rivers and can involve abseiling down waterfalls.

Australian and New Zealand survivors told their families of being hit by a wall of water one woman said was six metres (18 feet) high.

“The wall of water came through at a hell of a force and took out the first group who were on the rock level directly below,” Kelly Brajkovich told her father Len, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

“They just disappeared. They didn’t have a chance.”

Australian survivor Judy Manning told Australian radio that she believed the tragedy was a freak accident. “You can’t blame anyone for what has happened because it is just nature,” she said.

“You can’t blame the guide, you can’t blame the locals. It is just one of those freaky things that ends up happening because you are so high up in the mountains,” she added.

The Swiss fire brigade has said it was aware of the flood on Tuesday afternoon and emergency services had sent a man to the river to try and warn the group of the danger.

A former guide for Swiss-owned Adventure World, which ran the canyoning trip, told an Australian newspaper and radio station on Thursday that the disaster might have been avoided if heavy weather warnings had been heeded.

Georg Hoedle, the manager of Adventure World, has said all his guides had undergone two weeks of training for canyoning in addition to their mountain guide education.

Louis Salzman, a canyoning pioneer and president of the Alpine Rescue Commission, told Swiss television he believed the training was sufficient but said risks would always remain.



From staff and wire reports.