British woman critical after adventure champions accident

A 33-year-old Scotswoman is in critical condition after she was swept down a river during an Swiss adventure race.

Carolyn Jones, from Edinburgh, was taking part in a canyoning event on Tuesday morning as part of the Discovery Channel World Championship Adventure Race.

She was swept away and trapped under a large rock in a narrow ravine. Rescuers took 50 minutes to pull the unconscious Jones from between the rocks. They then winched her to safety in a helicopter.

A doctor from the organising team revived her before she was flown to hospital in Chur suffering from hypothermia.

Pierino Zanin, spokesman for Graubuenden cantonal police, said she was still in critical condition today.

Jones, a former member of the British and Scottish rowing teams, lives near Oxford. She is an independent forester who works in development aid.

She was taking part in the six-day race, which has attracted 45 four-member teams from across the world.

Competitors take part in trekking, mountain biking, rafting, climbing, glacier trekking and canyoning (a sport which in which participants slide, jump and abseil down ravines and into rivers without a raft).

There have been a number of serious canyoning accidents in Switzerland in recent years. In the most serious, 21 young people drowned when they were swept away by a flash flood while canyoning in central Switzerland in July 1999.

Last month a father and son were killed while canyoning in the southern part of the country.