Rui Pereira da Terra, Cascais port captain, told Lusa News Agency: “As we found a mobile phone on the wall, everything
indicates [the victims] could have been taking a selfie when they dropped the phone and reached over to grab it and fell”.
He confirmed the victims were tourists on holiday in Ericeira, Lisbon.
The accident happened during the early hours of Tuesday morning, after the two tourists fell from a height of around 30 metres. The woman has been identified in the media as Louise Benson, a wildlife conservation worker. The couple is thought to have been in Portugal for a wedding.
Their bodies were recovered from the beach below and taken to the Institute for Legal Medicine in Torres Vedras while proceedings were also being carried out with the Australian Embassy in Lisbon. PJ police were called to the scene but after probing, any criminal involvement was ruled out.
It is thought the accident happened between 1am and 6am Tuesday morning, when the alarm was raised by a local parish employee who was cleaning the sands.
The British Embassy in Lisbon confirmed: “We are assisting the family of a British woman following her death in Portugal, and our staff are in contact with the Portuguese authorities”.