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Rescuers on a riverbank bluff
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Andrea Liss / dpa
After a failed canyoning tour in the Allgäu, a 27-year-old was rescued dead from the Starzlach Gorge near Sonthofen on Sunday.
According to the police, the young woman and other canyoning athletes had been swept away in the gorge after a thunderstorm the day before by the rapidly rising water.
Her two companions, two men aged 31 and 49, were rescued.
The seriously injured 49-year-old was treated in hospital on Sunday.
The 31-year-old should be released later today.
150 emergency services searched for the missing person until late at night
The emergency call from the gorge was received by the police and rescue workers around 6 p.m. on Saturday.
Mountain and water rescue service, volunteer fire brigade, THW, DLRG and the alpine police task force rescued several people from the gorge, including the two injured men.
By nightfall, around 150 emergency services were looking for the missing woman in the Starzlach and Ostrach rivers.
Drones and two helicopters were also used.
However, visibility in the normally clear water was poor after the storm, a police spokesman said.
The young woman's body was found in the gorge early Sunday morning.
Canyoning is an adventurous tour through a gorge with abseiling, climbing, jumping, sliding and swimming.
The Starzlach Gorge in Oberallgäu is considered a hotspot for this leisure sport.
Several organizers offer guided tours there.
Prosecutor determined
On Saturday afternoon, around 60 to 70 people should have been on or in the gorge, the police said.
After the heavy rain, at least eight people were trapped by the water masses and at least three were swept away.
It is now being checked whether the organizer was at fault in the accident.
The public prosecutor's office in Kempten is investigating.
Serious accidents happen again and again in canyoning.
In April, a 27-year-old Dutchman died while canyoning in Ticino, in May 2021 a 27-year-old woman from Wiesbaden fell down a waterfall while canyoning in Austria's Kleinwalsertal and died.
The worst accident happened in 1999 in the Bernese Oberland: 21 people were killed when the Saxetbach near Interlaken suddenly swelled after a summer thunderstorm and took a canyoning group with it.
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