FOUR people, including an American tourist, have been killed after being dragged over a 400-foot-high waterfall in Asia.
As 14 swimmers floated in a natural pond on Monday, five of them were caught in a river surge and plunged down the eight-story waterfall, crashing into boulders at the bottom.
Search teams prepare to look for the missing victims after tourists plunged from a waterfall in Myanmar on Monday[/caption]
Andrei broke his right leg after falling on the rocks at Ohn Chaw Waterfall[/caption]
Four tourists were killed after the river surge dragged them over the edge[/caption]
Three Burmese women and one American woman died after falling onto the rocks at Ohn Chaw Waterfall in Mandalay, Myanmar.
First responders first found the only surviving member of the five swimmers who went over the edge, Andrei, a 43-year-old Russian man.
Andrei survived by wedging himself between rocks, but broke his right leg in the fall, the Associated Press reported.
Less than an hour after Andrei was saved, rescuers found the bodies of two Burmese women.
They then declared two of the five tourists missing after they couldn’t locate the American woman and the Burmese woman who were with the group.
First responders found the remains of the American tourist on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, the remaining missing Burmese woman was found dead.
The victims haven’t been identified.
“They were playing in the water when a mountain stream surge came down and swept them away,” a spokesperson for the Tha-Yar-Maung social assistance association told the AP.
“In our area, when the mountain stream flows, it comes down in large volumes. They were in the water when the current wasn’t very heavy yet,” the official said.
First responders found two Burmese women dead in the hours after the plunge[/caption]
Rescuers helped Andrei get out of the two rocks he was wedged between[/caption]
“But later, it came down in full force while they were still in the water, and they were carried away.”
It’s unclear what caused the surge.
“We heard they were swimming at the eighth tier. They were swept down by the force of the water to the third tier,” officials said.
EIGHT LEVELS
The Ohn Chaw is a tourist attraction known locally as the Eight-Tier Waterfall.
The spot is halfway between popular Myanmar towns Mandalay and Pyin Oo Lwin.
Each of the waterfall tiers has natural pools where visitors can swim before plunging into the canyon.
Timeline of recovery from the eighth-tier waterfall
The Myanmar Fire Service Department issued the following timeline for the five people were killed in a waterfall in Myanmar.
September 29, 2025
3:30 pm – 14 people swim on the eighth floor of the waterfall. News emerges that five people fell into the third floor waterfall.
5:00 pm – Andrei is found alive with a broken right leg from the fall.
6:05 pm – Two Burmese women are found dead. Search and rescue operations are underway for an American woman and a Burmese woman.
8 pm – Rescuers are forced to suspend their search due to visibility.
September 30, 2025
10:20 am – The American tourist is found dead.
October 1, 2025
9:30 am – The final Burmese woman is found dead.
Source: MFSD
It reportedly takes about two hours for hikers to reach the top of the waterfall.
The Myanmar Fire Service Department shared pictures of first responders carrying away body bags from the jungle setting of the waterfall.
Another picture showed Andrei being taken out of the rocks he was stuck in.
He was strapped to a rescue board and rushed to the nearby hospital.
He was rushed to the Pyin Oo Lwin Hospital for treatment after being strapped to a rescue board, per AP.
The waterfall is over 400 feet high[/caption]
