“A daredevil social media free-climber nicknamed the ‘Spider-Man of Yemen’ has died after falling into a volcanic crater in the country’s southwest,” reports the BBC.
Al-Qaqa Ibn Antar had been attempting to climb its steep rock faces on Friday without safety equipment when he fell in…The 30-year-old had a large following on social media and was well known for performing daring acrobatic stunts in online videos.
The Hardah Dam volcanic crater is one of the country’s most famous natural landmarks.
Video footage appearing to show the moment of the fall has been widely circulating online.
It shows Antar climbing the near-vertical wall of the crater before appearing to lose his grip and fall.
A water rescue team sent by Yemen’s Civil Defense Authority retrieved Antar’s body from the bottom of the crater on Sunday.
His body was found by divers inside the 400-foot wide crater at a depth of about 100 feet below the surface of the water in it.
Rescuers scaled down the side of the crater using climbing equipment, before winching a cage down to recover the climber’s body.
The Hardah Dam has been a tourist attraction in recent years, with a hot sulfur lake sitting at its base.
Some people in Yemen live in craters. The biggest port city in Yemen is Aden — which means Crater. The old part of the city is located in the crater of an extinct volcano.
The Hardah Dam volcanic crater
