‘Incredibly lucky’ teenager suffers minor injuries after 400ft canyon fall in Washington State
An “incredibly lucky” teenager has suffered only minor injuries after falling around 400ft (122m) down the side of a canyon, officials in the US have said.
The unidentified man, who is reported to be 19, slipped while hiking beneath the High Steel Bridge in Washington State, one of the tallest railroad bridges in the US, on Saturday, the Mason County Sheriff’s Office said.
Sheriff’s deputies and firefighters mounted a two-hour rescue mission using a rope and harness to scale the bridge and rescue the man who had fallen to the river below, the office said.
Pic: Facebook/Mason County Sheriff’s Office
Incredibly, he sustained only scrapes to both of his arms and was taken to a nearby hospital for evaluation.
West Mason Fire chief Matthew Welander told Seattle-based news outlet, KING 5, an affiliate of NBC News, Sky’s US partner, the team “hooked him up into a harness” and brought him all the way back up.
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“He was walking down a washout that a lot of people use and has kind of become a trail” and ended up at the river below, he said, adding the man had been “incredibly lucky”.
Sheriff’s patrol corporal Tim Ripp, who helped rescue him, said: “We’ve told people to stay off these trails because they’re dangerous, but people either haven’t seen the warning signs or are disregarding it.”
Pic: Facebook/Mason County Sheriff’s Office
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Corporal Ripp said five to seven people fall off the bridge every year, and the majority die, despite warning signs, including one describing how steep, slippery and unsafe the bridge is.
A lack of respect for nature and not paying attention are part of the problem as people continue falling from the bridge, authorities have said.
Vladimir Putin told Donald Trump he “will not back down” from Russia’s goals in Ukraine during a phone call today, the Kremlin has said.
The Russian president spoke to his US counterpart for almost an hour, and Mr Trump “again raised the issue of an early end to military action” in Ukraine, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters.
In response, Mr Putin said “Russia will not back down” from its aims there, which include “the elimination of the well-known root causes that led to the current state of affairs,” Mr Ushakov said.
The phrase “root causes” is shorthand for Moscow’s argument that it was compelled to invade Ukraine in order to prevent the country from joining NATO.
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Trump and Putin’s latest call on Ukraine
Ukraine and its European allies say this is a pretext to justify what they call an imperial-style war, but Mr Trump has previously shown sympathy with Russia.
At the same time, Mr Putin told the US president that Russia is ready to continue negotiating, the aide said.
The Russian president said any prospective peace deal must see Ukraine give up its NATO bid and recognise his country’s territorial gains.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, seen with Mr Trump in June, is pushing for Ukraine to join NATO. Pic: Reuters
He also briefed Mr Trump on agreements made last month, which saw Russia and Ukraine exchange prisoners of war and dead soldiers.
Specific dates for the third round of peace talks in Istanbul were not discussed – nor was the US decision to halt some shipments of critical weapons to Ukraine.
Mr Putin and Mr Trump’s call came after the Pentagon confirmed some weapons due to be sent to Ukraine have been held as it reviews military stockpiles.
The paused shipments include air defence missiles and precision-guided artillery, two people familiar with the situation have said.
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The decision led to Ukraine calling in the acting US envoy to Kyiv on Wednesday to underline the importance of military aid from Washington.
Kyiv also cautioned that the move would weaken Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against intensifying Russian airstrikes and battlefield advances.
Mr Putin and Mr Trump’s phone call was the sixth they have publicly disclosed since the US president returned to the White House in January.
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