A physics professor from Britain has died after falling 50ft on to rocks on a hiking trail in the US.
Alexei Likhtman, 44, tripped while taking photos at Annapolis Rock on the Appalachian Trail in Maryland on Sunday, police said.
Prof Likhtman had been leaping from rock to rock to take the photographs when he fell, Maryland Natural Resources Police spokesman Lieutenant Art Windemuth said.
“About 10.45am the victim was photographing the area and tripped and fell approximately between 40 and 50ft,” he said.
“He had a tripod with a camera on it, the camera fell and he fell.”
Other hikers tried to save the University of Reading professor but he died about an hour after falling, at noon local time.
A PhD student from Reading, named as Jian Zhu, was visiting the trail with Prof Likhtman.
Mr Zhu was uninjured, police said.
Prof Likhtman had been in the US to attend a conference in Baltimore.
He was from Moscow originally and had moved to the UK to study and teach, according to his social media profiles.
He worked at the University of Leeds between 1999 and 2007 and then joined the University of Reading as a professor of mathematical physics.
His family have been informed of his death.
Annapolis Rock is a popular spot for hikers along the 2,200-mile (3,500km) Appalachian Trail, which stretches from Maine in the north to Georgia in the south.
Bill Bryson wrote about the trail in A Walk In The Woods, which has been made into a recently released film of the same name starring Robert Redford.
skynews.co.uk
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