NZ glacier collapse kills two tourists

8 Jan 2009, 9:06 pm   -   Source: AAP
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Two tourists were killed when an ice shelf collapsed on them at the Fox Glacier in New Zealand's Southern Alps.

Two tourists were killed when an ice shelf collapsed on them at the Fox Glacier in New Zealand's Southern Alps.

The body of a man aged in his early 20s was recovered but police said it was too dangerous for rescuers to reach the second victim, a man of about the same age.

An attempt to recover his body from the terminal face of the 14km-long glacier will be made on Friday morning. Their names were not immediately released.

Two other people who were with them escaped when a 30-metre wall of ice collapsed after they ventured past a safety barrier for a closer look at the glacier on Thursday.

Rob Jewell, chief executive of Fox Glacier Guiding, told Radio New Zealand the group went onto the glacier on their own without guides.

"Unfortunately, they have made the decision to go past the safety barrier there," he said. "There is a designated viewing area that has signage - a roped off area - where you can safely view the glacier."

Department of Conservation area manager Jo Macpherson told TV3: "The terminal face of the Fox Glacier is very steep at present and subject to random ice collapses."

She said the Glacier Valley, on the west coast of the South Island, which is one of New Zealand's biggest tourist attractions, was a safe place for visitors, as long as they took notice of warning signs and did not go beyond barrier ropes.

The department said in 2007 that almost a third of the 600,000 visitors to the glaciers on the west coast of the South Island ignored warning sings and entered danger zones.

In February that year, an Australian tourist standing beside an ice cave at the terminal face of the Franz Josef Glacier was injured when the roof collapsed.

He had walked past signs warning of the danger of falling ice.

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