A horror landslide killed a British lawyer and his nine-year-old son during "the holiday of a lifetime", which has left his wife and other son in hospital.
The Nazir family of five has been tragically torn apart by a natural disaster at a popular Australian tourist attraction as their unharmed teenage daughter frantically called an air ambulance to save them.
Mehraab Nazir, 49, and his youngest child were crushed to death by falling rocks in the Blue Mountains, north of Sydney, as the family were trekking through the remote Wentworth Pass on Monday.
Australia's Triple-0 emergency service responded to the traumatised 15-year-old girl's call at 1:30pm by sending a helicopter to airlift her surviving mum Anastasia, 50, and brother, 14, to hospital in a critical condition.
Mr Nazir landed a top position as a finance lawyer and partner at a Sydney advisory firm and took the family from London down under 10 years ago.
On Monday, the massive rescue effort involved paramedics being winched down by helicopter to hoist the family up through the trees from "extremely dangerous, unstable" terrain.
The surviving mum and son had to be sedated in the rescue before being treated for serious head and abdominal injuries, NSW Ambulance Acting Chief Superintendent Stewart Clarke said.
Then came the saddening job of recovering the bodies of Mr Nazir and his nine-year-old son's as the daughter left the scene on foot and was later treated for shock in hospital.
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Acting Superintendent John Nelson said: "There were five people that were bushwalking. Unfortunately there has been a landslip while they have been bushwalking.
"It's quite a tragic scene, we do have a girl who is walking out at the moment who is obviously extremely distressed and we're trying to talk to her to obtain further information."
Mr Nazir's colleagues at Watson Farley and Williams told Australia's Daily Telegraph that he had been on "the holiday of a lifetime".
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Ambulance chief Stewart Clarke said: "Any situation as has been described is obviously exceptionally confronting and heart-breaking, especially when you start involving children."
In the weeks leading up to the tragedy, the region had been hit by several weeks of torrential rain which led to flooding but the hiking trail remained open
The National Parks and Wildlife Service closed part of the route “due to flood damage and ongoing rockfall risk” but not the track used by the Nazirs.
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The New South Wales Department of Environment and Heritage has said in a statement: "NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service has a world class programme in place to assess geotechnical risks and maintain the safety of walking tracks and other infrastructure to the greatest extent practicable.
"Unfortunately it is not possible to predict and eliminate all natural risks such as rockslides, which can occasionally occur around the state."
New South Wales Police confirmed all five people involved are from the same British family.
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