CANBERRA, May 30 (Xinhua) -- An elderly Australian man has suffered a heart attack while climbing Uluru, just months before the iconic rock is closed to climbers on October.
The 64-year-old man was halfway through the hour-long climb of Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, with a tour group on Tuesday when he entered cardiac arrest.
Two paramedics were quick to help, and two off-duty police officers were able to get the man's heart back into "survivable rhythm" with a defibrillator while awaiting the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Thursday, authorities said if not for the people around him the man would have become the 38th person to die on Uluru since records began, the most recent of whom was an old Japanese man who was killed by a heart attack atop the rock in July 2018.
"The park's traditional owners, Anangu, feel a responsibility to look after all visitors whilst they're on their land so when someone is injured or becomes unwell on the climb they are greatly saddened, as are all park staff," Parks Australia said in a statement on the heart attack.
While climbing Uluru has never been banned, the Anangu ask visitors not to do so because it is a site of great spiritual significance to Australia's indigenous people.
However, the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park board voted unanimously to prohibit climbing Uluru. The ban will come into effect on Oct. 26.
According to Steven Schwer, chief executive of Tourism Central Australia, there has been a significant uptick in the number of tourists to Uluru since the climbing ban was announced, with Japanese people the most common international visitors.
"There are a number of reasons why we encourage people not to climb; one of those is safety, another is environmental, and also the cultural significance of the rock to the Anangu people, so we would prefer it that people don't climb," he told ABC.
