Men who fell 60m from Lion Rock lucky to survive - medical officer

One of the injured men is loaded onto the Westpac rescue helicopter. Image / nzherald.co.nz video

The first medical officer on the scene after two men fell from Piha's Lion Rock found one man hardly breathing and the other with mangled legs, and says they would have died if they had not bounced off the rock during their fall.

The men, aged 18 and 31, are fighting for their lives at Auckland Hospital after falling more than 60 metres just past midnight on Auckland's west coast.

"They were in a critical state. They were not moving. Both were unconsious. One had obstructed breathing, one of them clearly had a very obvious fracture to his leg. The other had an obvious head injury," said Piha resident Jonathon Webber, a senior lifeguard who performed emergency treatment on the men until ambulances arrived.

The men had gone above the walking track on Lion Rock into a restricted area, up to a height where a direct fall would have killed them, Mr Webber said.

"I was extremely concerned. If they had fallen vertically from that height they wouldn't have survived. It looks like they tumbled - rolled - and fallen clear of the rocks."

Mr Webber was duty officer for Piha Surf Lifesaving last night when a clearly distressed man knocked on his door telling him two men had fallen off Lion Rock.

He called into Surf Lifesaving headquarters to get support and rushed to the scene on an all-terrain vehicle.

Mr Webber performed emergency treatment for about five minutes before the first ambulance showed up.

A Westpac helicopter and the fire service soon followed.

The men were in an awkward spot and needed a team of men to get them out and on to the helicopter to be rushed to Auckland Hospital, Mr Webber said.

There had been at least four other people in the group with the fallen men. They told Mr Webber the pair had gone up Lion Rock beyond the walking track.

There had been no obvious signs of drinking and he could not smell alcohol on either of the two injured men, Mr Webber said.

Mr Webber did not recognise the group with the injured men and did not think they were local.

Police said it was a mystery why the two men had been climbing the rock in the dark.

Both men are still in Auckland Hospital in a state described as critical but stable.

Helicopter chief paramedic Barry Watkins said one of the men had a serious chest injury and required urgent medical treatment on the beach.

A team of investigators is conducting a scene examination at Piha today.

Specialist rescue personnel had been called in to help with access to the top of Lion Rock and the difficult nearby terrain.