Mother dies after family-of-three involved in horror 200ft plunge off mountain in Lake District

A 38-year-old woman airlifted to hospital has died after falling around 200 feet down a mountainside.

The family, including a six-year-old girl and her parents, lost their footing while hiking on Sharp Edge, a slippery moss-covered ledge on Blencathra mountain in the Lake District at around 2.30pm yesterday.

All three were airlifted by Sea King helicopters from RAF Bulmer and RAF Valley to Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle.

A spokeswoman for Cumbria Police said the 48-year-old father and six-year-old daughter are being treated for non-life threatening injuries and the three are from Peterborough.

The spokeswoman for Cumbria Police said: "Officers can confirm that the three people involved were a family from Peterborough.

'Tragically the 38-year-old wife and mother has been pronounced dead. Police will not be releasing the identity of any of the family members at this stage.'

Two RAF Sea King helicopters winched the three to safety, after witnesses heard their screams for help.

As they plummeted onto the rocks below, two other hikers were left clinging in terror to the knife-sharp precipice.

No further details were released.

Earlier tonight a spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said: 'We believe they tumbled or fell about 200 feet.

'The second helicopter recovered the lady who had fallen and took her to hospital.

'The first helicopter was scrambled at about 2.45pm.

'It was wet and slippy. They were just below the cloud line around 2,000 feet up the mountain. It is quite steep there.

'Two other adults were taken down the mountain by Keswick Mountain Rescue team.'

Sharp Edge is feared even by experienced walkers, and nine people are known to have plunged to their deaths negotiating the slippery rocks.

It is the most difficult point of Blencathra, also known as Saddlebeck, a 2,800 foot peak with a series of precarious summits and slopes.

Inspector Paul Coulson of Cumbria Polce said the conditions on Sharp Edge, which has recently been deluged with rain, were 'extremely dangerous'.

Notorious: A rambler tackes the `Sharp Edge' arete on the flank of Blencathra near Keswick in the Lake District (library picture)

Tommy Hynd, landlord of the White Horse Inn at nearby Threkeld, dashed to the scene, after hearing sirens.

He said: 'I've only been here since July but I have never seen anything like this before.

'It is a popular walk with families and there  are different routes for different abilities.'

Since records began in 1947, there have been 53 serious incidents and nine deaths on Sharp Edge.

One walker's guide described the peak as the 'most difficult obstacle on any  walker's path in the Lake District.'

It adds: 'It is not the technical difficulty, but the exposure, that is my  problem. My first experience of it was a descent and I remember spending an inordinate amount of time on my bottom whilst trying to hold on for grim death.'