A 27-year-old Dutch woman died on Thursday afternoon after falling roughly 100 feet at the Ravana waterfall in the Kithalella area of Ella, police said.
The woman, named by police as Valentina, had gone to view the waterfall with another foreign visitor when her foot slipped, Hiru News reported, citing police.
Residents recovered her and took her to hospital, but she had already died, police said. Ella Police are conducting further investigations.
The report did not give her full name, and no statement from the Netherlands embassy had been issued at the time of writing.
Context
Ravana Falls, on the Wellawaya–Ella road below the town, is one of the most visited waterfalls in the country and sits directly beside the highway, which makes it unusually easy to reach without a guide. The rocks at the base and along the sides are smooth and stay wet year-round, and the current spell of heavy rain across the hill country has raised flows.
Fatal falls at the site are not new. Deaths of foreign visitors at the same waterfall have been reported in previous years, and safety measures at the falls have been raised repeatedly without a permanent barrier being installed along the upper sections.
A note on sourcing: no other verified newsroom whose publication date could be confirmed had filed on the death at the time of writing — it occurred in the late afternoon. Searches for this incident return reports of earlier fatalities at the same waterfall involving visitors of other nationalities; those are separate, older events and are not cited here.
