Australia landslide kills two British tourists

Australian police on Tuesday recovered the bodies of a British man and his nine-year-old son, killed when a rockslide hit their family while walking in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney.

The landslide struck the holidaying family of five on Monday, killing the 49-year-old father and his son and critically injuring the 50-year-old mother and another 14-year-old son, police said.

The injured mother and son, who were winched out of the scene at Wentworth Falls by helicopter, underwent surgery and remain in “critical conditions”, a police spokeswoman said.

Rescuers treated the couple’s 15-year-old daughter for shock and transferred her to a Sydney children’s hospital, where she remained under observation on Tuesday.

She was being assisted by the British consulate and welfare services.

Blue Mountains police were investigating the landslide and a report would be prepared for the coroner on the two deaths, police said.

The identity of the family has not been released.

Sydney has experienced heavy rains in recent weeks, with many suburbs in the city’s west devastated by flash flooding and heavy storms.

The New South Wales national parks and wildlife service said the track the family was on had been inspected in the days before the rockslide.

All tracks in the Wentworth Falls area were closed “until further notice”, it said in a statement.