British tourist, 73, dies during hike in northern Spain in front of wife and friends

The man’s wife alerted the emergency services after he collapsed during the walk near the small town of Anguiano in the province of La Rioja. The 73-year-old was reportedly by the Valvanera Monastery guesthouse at the time accompanied by his wife and two friends.

Medical responders, police and firefighters were mobilised but there was nothing they could do to save the Brit holidaymaker and he was pronounced dead at the scene. His wife raised the alarm at a bar near to the monastery at around 3pm.

She is now understood to be making plans to have his body repatriated. According to The Sun, a well-placed source said the autopsy was expected to show he had suffered a heart attack.

The hikers were understood to have been walking a route between the Valvanera Monastery and Los Pancrudos which is a succession of four mountains all above 6,500ft high. It comes after a British hiker was found dead last month in Mallorca after a pair of tourists went missing on the Spanish island during a horror storm.

On September 4, police said a body that had been found after flash flooding in Mallorca was that of the missing woman, not a man as first thought. The Civil Guard said the body was found following a search and rescue operation involving police and firefighters.

The Civil Guard said: “The operation had so far led to the discovery of the body which could be that of a 32-year-old British man. The operation for a woman of the same nationality is continuing.” The force added: “With regards to the search operation that is being conducted in the Sa Calobra area, the body discovered corresponds with that of a woman and the person still missing is a man.”