Walter Finch
THE body of a British hiker who was washed away in torrent of water while hiking in Mallorca on Tuesday night has been found, the Guardia Civil have confirmed.
He has been named as Alexander Johnson, 32, who was found in areas where ‘deep pools form’ in the the Serra de Tramuntana mountain range.
He died after trying to rescue his girlfriend of Sarah Jane Thompson, 26, who was caught in a sudden torrent of water in the usually dry riverbed where they were hiking.
Her body was found on Wednesday morning just 200 metres from where the couple had last been sighted.
An autopsy will be conducted to verify if he died by drowning or from impact from the strength of the torrents dragging him through the gorge.
Experts have described the force and fury of the sudden torrents that can form in the area during heavy rainfalls as ‘attacking.’
Reports on Thursday indicated that a pair of trousers and a shoe had been found by mountain rescue teams, but now the double tragedy has been confirmed.
The two British tourists had gone hiking on Tuesday in the challenging Torrent de Pareis gorge in the northern coast of the island when heavy storms struck.
According to local reports, the couple had gone to Mallorca on holiday with family and friends.
They entered the steep Torrent de Pareis gorge under a sunny sky, unaware that an emergency alert had been put out.
Divers from the Armed Institute’s Underwater Activities Group had joined the search for the missing man to inspect the deepest pools in the watercourse that had formed after heavy storms battered the island on Tuesday.
A group of 10 hikers who managed to get rescued — two Spaniards, along with French, German, and British nationals — said that the couple had been swept away in Torrent de Pareis, Escorca.
According to reports, a sudden torrential surge caught Thompson unawares and snatched her away, with Johnson suffering a similar fate when trying to save her.
The Torrent de Pareis is a deep, narrow gorge that stretches about 3km from the Gorg Blau reservoir to its mouth at the Cala de Sa Calobra, a small cove on the northern coast of Mallorca.
The walls can reach heights of up to 200 metres, and the gorge narrows to just a few metres across in some parts.
During heavy rains, water captured in surrounding areas flows into the gorge, causing the dry riverbed to flood rapidly.
The narrowness of the gorge creates a funnel effect, and in a matter of minutes the sudden waters turn into a raging torrent that experts have described as ‘attacking’ during heavy rainfall.
Hikers caught in the gorge during these conditions have little time to react and few places where they can escape to once a flash flood begins.
Five people have died while hiking in the rocky gorges and ravines of Mallorca’s Serra de Tramuntana since 2017 – largely experienced canyoneers.
In January 2020, Balearic freediving champion David Cabrera, 34, vanished while canyoning in the Torrent de na Mora.
Search teams – including the GEAS – were deployed to rescue him, but they were hindered by the ongoing storm. His body was never recovered.
Another canyoneer, Joaquin Muñoz, 59, died in 2019 after torrential waters washed him off a 60 metre cliff, and in 2017 a 46-year-old woman drowned after getting tangled in ropes.
