The tragedy hit a British family on vacation in Australia when a father and his nine-year-old son were killed in a landslide while hiking and the mother and other son were seriously injured.
A 15-year-old girl from the same family survived and fled the scene in a remote part of the Blue Mountains in New South Wales, officials added.
He was later treated for shock.
The boy and his 49-year-old father died on the Wentworth Falls hiking track west of Sydney on Monday, New South Wales police said.
The family’s 50-year-old mother and second son, aged 14, were airlifted from the valley by a New South Wales ambulance in a rescue helicopter, Superintendent Stuart Clark told reporters, calling the situation “heartbreaking.”
Patients had “significant head and abdominal injuries” and had to be calmed and intubated to help them breathe before jumping to safety, he added.
Five were vacationing in Australia, police said, a few of the four million tourists attracted to Blue Mountain National Park each year.
Mr Clark said weeks of humid weather in Sydney had left the area “extremely dangerous and volatile” for rescuers before the landslide.
Detective Superintendent John Nelson, from the Blue Mountains Area Command, called it “a tragic scene,” adding that rescuers were “working in a very difficult situation.”
“A girl is walking at the moment, which is obvious [and] It hurts a lot. “
The weather conditions were reasonable, he said, adding that he realized the hiking trail was open at the time.
Emergency services were called to Wentworth Falls, Wentworth Falls, around 1:40 p.m., Mr. Nelson said.
Police helicopters, local officers and an expert rescue team were deployed to the dense undergrowth about a 90-minute walk from the car park.
The injured couple were evacuated around 6pm, Mr Clark said, echoing police views that the terrain was a “very dangerous, extremely volatile environment” for paramedics to work.
“[It is] Exceptional face-to-face and heartbreaking, especially when you start involving children, ”he said.
Mr Clark added that ambulance chaplains and police support officers were also present “to support our people”.
The British Consulate is assisting.
