A British backpacker shattered his hip when he plunged 130ft from a waterfall in Thailand in a horrifying Christmas Eve accident. Twenty-year-old Joshua Kohler had hiked to the top of the Na Muang waterfall on the island of Koh Samui “to get a better view”.
There were warning signs telling people not to go any further, which had been put in place following several deaths on the same waterfall.
But he and seven of his friends simply walked past these signs as they walked up to the summit.
Mr Kohler, from Norwich, is said to have reach the top of the cascading streams but then slipped on the wet rocks.
He landed by crashing down on to a large boulder where he was heard “wailing in pain”.
The horror fall had left him with a deep wound on his head and a suspected broken hip, leaving him unable to walk.
A rescue team was called and after reaching him on the hazardous hillside they strapped him on to a stretcher and took him on the perilous journey to safety.
It took them four hours before they reached an ambulance and he was taken to hospital.
His family has been told what happened.
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Koh Samui rescue chief Suthipong Thongruang said: “Rescue officers took more than forty minutes to walk up the cliff before they found the injured person.
“He was laying on a large boulder wailing in pain. There was also a group of friends with him. Some of them seemed to be teenagers.
“The injured tourist was given first aid for a 5cm deep cut on his head and a broken hip.
“He was put on a stretcher which was lowered down the rocks and taken to the hospital. As the stretcher moved, the injured tourist groaned from the pain.”
“Tourists must follow the warning signs at the waterfall to prevent accidents.
“Anyone who violates the warnings may die.
“The group was lucky because the injured person landed on a boulder. He would not have survived if he had fallen all the way down.”
Joshua and his group of friends told officials they “did not see” the warning signs.
Back in May a Romanian holidaymaker died at the same waterfall while taking a selfie.
Nane-Iosana Bodea, 23, plunged 50ft to her death after slipping on wet rocks near a waterfall.
