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The 34-year-old man from Newnham, West Northamptonshire, fell to his death after his parachute failed to open in time during a cliff jump in the south of France. The base jumper was on holiday with three friends when the incident occurred. He was seriously injured and died at Grenoble university hospital after the accident on Tuesday, according to the Dauphiné Libéré newspaper.

The local publication reported that the man had been holidaying with friends in Millau, Aveyron.

On their way back from a day trip on Tuesday, the group decided to jump off the Bournillon cliff and into the Bourne gorge in the commune of Châtelus, in Isère.

One of the man’s friends raised the alarm just before 7pm when the group did not see his parachute open.

Rescuers deployed to the areas searched for the man by helicopter.

They found him unconscious and in cardiorespiratory arrest.

He was reportedly dangling from his parachute, which had got stuck to the cliffside.

Two rescuers were winched as close to the man as possible. Once he was secured he was lowered to a more accessible area to aid the rescuers.

He was then airlifted to Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Grenoble Alpes in a critical condition.

He later died of his injuries.

Police have launched an investigation to determine what caused the accident.

A police spokesman said: “We are investigating to find out the cause of this accident.

“It appears that the man had possibly opened his parachute and then crashed into a cliff.

“But at present we don’t know exactly what happened.”

Base jumping, an extreme adrenaline sport, involves people launching themselves from a fixed point such as a cliff or building.

The jumper goes into free-fall before deploying a parachute to slow their descent to land.

Unlike skydivers, base jumpers carry only one parachute. As base jumps happen from much closer to the ground, there would be no time to use a reserve system if the primary parachute fails.

Skydivers always carry a main and reserve parachute as they jump from much higher altitudes.

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