Emergency responders on Tuesday returned to the site of a devastating rock slide on a popular Colorado mountain to recover the bodies of five hikers who were killed. A sixth hiker, a 13-year-old girl, was pulled from the rubble hours earlier, transported for treatment of various injuries.
Rescue operations were called off Monday evening after responders deemed the area too dangerous to work at night, The Associated Press reported.
The Monday-morning slide sent boulders as big as cars onto a viewing area on the 14,197-foot Mount Princeton, where travelers normally pause to survey the scenic Agnes Vaille Falls. Five of the hikers died sometime at the scene, while the sixth — the teenage girl – was rescued and flown to a Denver hospital for treatment of a broken leg and miscellaneous injuries, AP said.
It wasn’t clear how the six hikers were affiliated and whether they part of a single group or simply individual hikers that happened to be walking at the same pace. Their identities have yet to be released.
The U.S. Forest Service is in charge of maintaining the trail, Fox News reported.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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