AN emergency worker was killed during the dramatic rescue of a Yorkshire backpacker from a remote Australian gorge.

Michelle Suri, 25, from Scarborough, fell into the Hancock Gorge, in the Karijini national park, in Western Australia.

But while rescuers were securing her to a stretcher a flash flood struck. Michelle and her four rescuers were swept downstream.

One rescuer managed to cling on to the stretcher, held it up and succeeded in clambering on to a ledge, where they were joined by two of the other rescuers.

Twelve hours later they were airlifted to safety but the fourth rescuer, state emergency worker James Regan, 36, was not with them.

His body was finally recovered from the water after a 24-hour search by a 60-strong team of volunteers.

Miss Suri, a physiotherapist, was taken to the Tom Price Hospital, where her condition was later described as stable.

In England, her mother, Claudy Dixon, spoke of her gratitude to the rescuers and her distress at the death of Mr Regan, a father-of-one.

"We are all very upset that one of the rescuers died. I want to stress how thankful we are to that man."

Police Inspector Wayne Dohmen, from Tom Price, said: "The rescue was a prolonged operation and she was in a location which was rather inaccessible."

Miss Suri is planning to return to Britain in the summer after spending two years travelling the world.

In a second rescue in the same national park, 29-year-old Oliver Peace, from Leeds, had to be winched to safety after falling into a different gorge.