Sydney, Oct 13 (AFP) Three people died today in what isbelieved to be a mid-air skydiving collision, with one of thevictims found in someone's garden.
Two men in their 30s and a woman in her 50s were founddead at Mission Beach, south of popular tourist town Cairns,mid-afternoon.
"Initial investigations indicate that a solo skydiver mayhave collided with tandem skydivers in mid-air with theirparachutes failing to deploy correctly," police said in astatement.
"Two men in their 30s and a woman in her 50s were locateddeceased at the scene."The Australian Broadcasting Corporation cited ambulanceofficials as saying one of them fell onto someone's lawn.
"We had a report of a skydiver who had been found in thegarden at a residence in Mission Beach," said QueenslandAmbulance Service's Neil Noble.
"Shortly thereafter we received another report of anothertwo skydivers that'd been found close by."An unnamed eyewitness told the Cairns Post newspaper themood in the town was sombre as residents came to terms withwhat had happened.
"I didn't see anyone near them, but they were at a fairlyhigh altitude so maybe a collision happened further up," hesaid.
"You could see one chute was tangled and it wasn'topening.
"I was just watching him in free fall until he wentbehind the trees, and that was the last I saw."Skydive Australia said operations at Mission Beach hadbeen suspended while investigations were underway.
Located midway between Cairns and Townsville, MissionBeach,a gateway to Dunk Island, is popular with backpackersmaking their way down the Queensland state coast.(AFP)AMS.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.