One teenager died and another was seriously injured in a cliff fall at Malin Head, Co Donegal, yesterday morning.
Brian Glackin (18), from the Malin area, was a student at Letterkenny IT with a part-time summer job in construction. He died instantly after slipping on steps leading to Sandport beach at Ballygorman at around 1.30am yesterday.
Amanda Payne (17) from Coventry, who was visiting the area to attend the forthcoming wedding of a cousin, also slipped and is in a serious condition in hospital.
The pair were heading for a beach party and disco linked to the annual August 15th Malin Sports Day - a major festival in the district and were descending the cliff via steps that one local described as "like a hairpin bend".
He said: "It seems one of them slipped and tried to hold on to the other. Then both fell from one set of steps down to those below. They would have fallen no more than seven or eight feet. It was a real freak accident." It is believed there were rails along part of the cliff steps, but none at the spot where the pair fell.
The secluded beach is a popular party spot for teenagers at the end of the annual sports festival. Set in spectacular scenery, it is about 10km from Malin town on the Inishowen peninsula.
The pair were discovered within minutes of the fall by other members of the party. Gardaí and other emergency ser-vices were notified at 1.50am.
The young woman was taken to Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry with head injuries. She underwent emergency surgery and was later transferred to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. Her condition late yesterday was said to be serious.
The young man's body was removed yesterday to Letterkenny General Hospital for a postmortem examination.
Local Fine Gael councillor Bernard McGuinness, who visited the grieving Glackin family, said: "They are totally devastated. Everybody in the area is stunned. They are a well-known and highly respected family."
Supt Vincent O'Brien said: "We're keeping an open mind on this very tragic incident. We do know that as they were approaching the beach sometime between 1am and 1.30am there seems to have been some sort of an incident and, tragically, one young man has died."