Woman hiking with husband dies after falling off cliff while taking photos, NY cops say
A woman fell 70 feet from the edge of a cliff at a New York state park while taking photos with her husband, according to police, who said she died.
The married couple from Singapore were hiking at Minnewaska State Park in Ulster County when rescuers responded to the husband’s 911 call the afternoon of Dec. 22, a news release issued Dec. 26 by state police said.
The park is located in the Shawangunk Mountain Ridge, about 100 miles north of New York City. It’s a preserve with 50 miles of trails, various cliffs, ledges, waterfalls, running streams and three lakes.
Nur Aisyah Binte MD Akbar, 39, and her husband, Abdul Rauf Bin Mohd Said, 41, stopped along the park’s Beacon Hill Trail to take photos near a cliff’s edge when the woman “lost her footing,” police said.
After her husband called 911, a state police aviation unit rescued the woman following the fall before she was taken to Ellenville Regional Hospital, according to the release. State park police, forest rangers and other first responders also arrived at the scene to help.
At the hospital, the woman “succumbed to her injuries,” police said.
Authorities are investigating her death, the release said.
Minnewaska State Park is open to the public for hiking, biking, rock climbing, swimming and a range of other recreational activities. The preserve is inhabited by coyotes, white-tailed deer, timber rattlesnakes and more than 200 species of birds, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
This story was originally published December 27, 2023 at 12:59 PM with the headline "Woman hiking with husband dies after falling off cliff while taking photos, NY cops say."
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