Three presumed dead in Yosemite waterfall plunge | Reuters

(Reuters) - Three people who had been playing at the top of a 317-foot Yosemite National Park waterfall were presumed dead after plunging over the edge, a park spokesman said on Wednesday.

Ninos Yacoub, 27, Hormiz David, 22, and Ramina Badal, 21, were seen slipping over Vernal Falls on Tuesday afternoon by hikers who had warned them to stay out of the river above the precipice, park ranger Scott Gediman said.

"Basically one person lost his footing and he started to slide down, and the second person tried to rescue him and then the third," he said.

Search and rescue teams had not found the bodies as of Wednesday morning, Gediman said, but did not believe that Yacoub, David or Badal could have lived through the ordeal.

"It's a 317-foot vertical drop over rushing water. It's not something that somebody can survive, unfortunately, Gediman said. "It's a tragic situation."

One or more of the bodies could have become wedged in rocks or carried downstream in the Merced River, Gediman said.

via reuters.com