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Iraqi teenager killed in rockslide on Austrian mountain

AFP/The Local
AFP/The Local - [email protected]
Iraqi teenager killed in rockslide on Austrian mountain
View from the Werfen ice caves in Austria. Photo: Diego Delso/Wikimedia Commons"

A 14-year-old Iraqi boy was killed in a rockslide on an Austrian mountain as he was climbing towards one of the biggest ice caves in the world.

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The teenager was hit in the chest as climbed at 1,600 metres (5,250 feet) towards the Werfen ice caves on the Tennen mountains, police said.

"Four hundred metres above the site, a rock of about two cubic metres in volume broke away after heavy rains on Saturday," said geologist Gerald Valentin.

The Werfen ice caves, which stretch 42 kilometres (26 miles), were discovered in 1879 and are considered to be the largest network of ice caves in the world, attracting up to 2,500 visitors a day in high season.

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