How tourist slipped to death after taking photos at Victoria Falls

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Roy George Tinashe Dikinya before he fell.
Roy George Tinashe Dikinya before he fell.

A tourist identified as Roy George Tinashe Dikinya has died after taking pictures at Victoria Falls.

Dikinya, 40, was photographed walking by a cliff at one of the world’s most famous waterfalls in Zimbabwe on New Year’s Day moments before he slipped and fell to his death.

A photo taken seconds earlier shows him walking by the cliff’s edge while wearing sandals and a bunch of items in his arm.

A witness told Newsday a Zimbabwe newspaper saying: “We were alerted by the woman’s scream and she told us that he had slipped and fallen.

“Because of the showers and the mist, we could not trace him after that, and that’s when we went to alert the park’s officials.”

Mr Dikinya fell more than 100m to his death.

It took several days for authorities to find his body because it was trapped at the bottom of the rocky cliff.

But they have yet to recover it because of the extraordinarily difficult location.

While the terrain and the sheer volume of the water complicate the recovery, the presence of crocodiles and hippopotamuses in the Zambesi River adds another element of danger.

Mr Dikinya was a tourist visiting from the Zimbabwean capital of Harare. He was at Victoria Falls with a friend.

Tourism and Environment Minister, Mangaliso Ndlovu who sent his condolences to Mr Dikinya’s family said: “This is a rare, tragic and unfortunate incident to be witnessed at the mighty Victoria Falls”.

Another body was found several kilometres downstream earlier, but authorities said it was not Mr Dinkinya but the body has yet to be identified.

Located on the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia, Victoria Falls is one of the largest and most famous waterfalls in the world.

The falls are 1.7km long.

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