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Source: ONE News -
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They just wanted to take photographs but getting too close to one of New Zealand's best known natural attractions has cost two young Australians their lives.
The brothers died after being crushed by falling ice at the face of Fox Glacier in South Westland around 4.20pm Thursday.
One body was removed on Thursday night but police say conditions make it too dangerous at the moment to try and retrieve the other.
Searchers risked their own lives under a fragile ice wall to look for the two men crushed by a hundred tons of falling ice.
Constable Tony LeSueur of West Coast police says there was no
chance of survival.
With road access closed, ONE News flew to the base of Fox Glacier
as a digger scraped at the collapsed ice.
Searchers recovered one body before pulling out for safety reasons.
The dead men were 24-year-old Ashish Miranda and his 22-year-old brother Akshay.
"They're the only sons of the family. One is an aerospace engineer from Melbourne and the other is a student," says Constable Paul Gurney of West Coast police.
Both men were described as high achievers.
"The family's obviously grieving at the moment. The mother is very distraught. The father is taking it in his stride at the moment and from what I gether the rest of the family's been notified in Australia and India," says Gurney.
The men had been holidaying in New Zealand with their parents.
With two other family members, they ignored safety warnings and walked to the base of the glacier, touching the ice as they posed for another holiday snap.
"At that exact moment, a massive amount of ice has fallen on them," says Gurney.
Another tourist took a photo seconds before the collapse.
"At the moment because it's pushing forward, it's quite steep at the face, and that's what starts to cause just random ice collapses," says Jo MacPherson, DOC Area Manager.
On Friday, DOC reopened the glacier to tourists, while police escorted the men's father and cousin to the icey grave which still holds their loved one.
The collapsed wall is melting into a river and it's still too dangerous to search for him.
"I'll be explaining to the family that we may not recover their son any time soon," says Gurney.
It is a majestic place but potentially a very dangerous one.
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