In Argentina, tourist killed by falling ice in Patagonian cave

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – A tourist identified by local media as a Brazilian man died near Argentina’s southern city of Ushuaia after being hit by a block of ice that broke off the roof of a Patagonian cave, local police said on Thursday.

The accident occurred in an off-limits area on Wednesday afternoon in the so-called Cueva de Jimbo, an area with glaciers inside the Tierra del Fuego national park, located on the outskirts of Ushuaia some 1,907 miles (3,070 kilometers) south of Buenos Aires.

Ushuaia claims to be the world’s southernmost city along with neighboring Chile’s Puerto Williams.

A group of seven tourists had approached the cave, one of whom filmed the shocking moment when a chunk of ice broke off and fell on the man. Screaming can be heard in the video.

Police official Cristian Armani told Reuters the man had not been not been carrying a passport or identity card at the time of the excursion.

The man was traveling alone with his dog in a motor home, and was not related to the other tourists who had decided to follow the trail, marked with danger signs prohibiting entry.

“Entry is forbidden because ice and rock can fall from the roof of the cave,” Armani said. “Cueva de Jimbo is at the foot of the glacier, it was formed naturally from rock and ice and gets eroded by the wind and thawing temperatures.”

(Reporting by Lucila Sigal; Editing by Aurora Ellis)