Sad: Two Britons Crushed To Death By Rocks While Taking A Picture. Details...

A British mother of two was crushed to death by an avalanche of rocks while posing for a photograph at a beauty spot by a waterfall in Bulgaria.

Katia Pavlova, 45, who had dual British and Bulgarian citizenship, was killed alongside a British man during a trip to the Krushuna waterfalls, in the north of the country, last Thursday.

The pair, believed to be friends, were both buried alive when around 7,000 cubic feet of rock came down as they stopped to have their picture taken on a rope bridge

Rescuers searched for 48 hours trying to find the pair, who had arrived in the country for a holiday a few days earlier, before their bodies were located yesterday morning.

Viktor Dzhonev, who runs a guest house near the falls, in Letnitsa province, said the remote location of the rock fall and flood water made the rescue effort very difficult.

He added it was not known what had caused the avalanche, but there had been a similar incident a few years ago.

‘The man and woman were under the cliffs,’ he said. ‘Another woman was taking a picture of them with a camera when it happened.

‘A small piece of rock hit her but she got away. The couple were buried.’

He added: ‘It was perfect weather, there was no rain, it was sunny all day. I don’t have an idea why it happened. Around three years ago there was another fall when another cliff came down.’

An official at the Bulgarian Interior Ministry in Lovech, a city around 20 miles from the scene, told local media that the woman who raised the alarm was a Bulgarian friend of the pair who they had come to visit.

She was admitted hospital but was not in a critical condition.