Man survives fall from 'World's End,' 4,000-foot sheer cliff in Sri Lanka

NUWARA ELIYA, Sri Lanka, Feb. 22 (UPI) -- A Dutch tourist survived falling off a 4,000-foot sheer cliff in Sri Lanka when a tree broke his fall.

Mamitho Lendas, 35, was honeymooning in Horton Plains National Park when he slipped off a scenic cliff called the "World's End" while photographing his new wife.

Lendas was saved when a tree about 160 feet below broke his fall.

"I fell down backward two times and then I sat in bushes for like three and a half hours," Lendas told the BBC. "Three and a half hours -- the longest three and a half hours in my life."

Lendas was eventually hoisted to the top by a rope. He and his wife extended thanks to a Canadian man named Kent, who they said talked to Lendas throughout the rescue.

Lendas is the first person to survive a fall from the World's End, which affords views of mist-shrouded hills and mountains, as well as the Indian Ocean some 50 miles to the south.