Hiker plunges 500 feet to his death after posing for photo on rock

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A hiker plunged to his death moments after posing for a photo on the top of a rock in Brazil – and the horrifying fall was caught on camera.

Caio Rocha Aguiar Arrabal, 44, clambered onto the rock in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday to take the now-tragic snap before falling almost 500 feet to his death, Brazilian outlet Globo reported.

A fellow hiker on the Pedra do Macaco trail warned him to be careful as he tried to make his descent – and her harrowing screams were heard on a video recorded at the scene.

The fall sparked a “complex” four-hour rescue operation, but Arrabal died from his injuries, officials said.

“We had to go in through a densely wooded area with extremely difficult access to reach him,” Matheus Moura of the Maricá Civil Defence said. 

“We had to climb, ascend using ropes and carry out several procedures before getting to the site.”

Visitors regularly climb onto the exposed rock to take snaps of the lagoons of Maricá, a Rio district, but the vantage point has been the scene of previous accidents.

Arrabal, who was guiding a team on the trail despite being unlicensed, tried to descend from the wrong side of the rock before the tragic plunge, according to Moura.

The Pedra do Macaco trail takes around 40 minutes to climb and is about half-a-mile long.