A man was killed Monday and three other people were injured when they fell about 300 feet from a cliff in Palos Verdes Estates in what authorities are calling an apparent accident.
The fall was reported at 4:42 a.m. in the 1400 block of Paseo Del Mar, said Los Angeles County Fire Department Dispatch Supervisor Martin Rangel. Fire department helicopters were sent to assist in the rescue effort, Rangel said.
Two males and two females fell, and one of them died at the scene, the fire department reported. The circumstances of the fall were under investigation by the Palos Verdes Estates Police Department.
The fatally injured person was a 25-year-old Los Angeles man, Palos Verdes Estates police Capt. Steve Barber told City News Service. His name was not immediately released, pending notification of his relatives.
Barber said the preliminary investigation indicates the fall was an apparent accident. Other details were not immediately released.
KNX Newsradio reported from the scene that the four people all appeared to be in their 20s. The conditions of the other three people were not immediately known.
“It’s extremely dangerous; there’s no fencing in the area,” county fire Capt. Wade Kelsey told Fox11. “There’s sloping to where it just goes off to a sheer cliff, and the majority of the area here is very unstable, very dangerous if you get close to the edge of this cliff without any sort of protection.”
One of the men who fell climbed back to the top of the steep embankment and called authorities for help, fire officials told reporters.