NETCARE 911 paramedics were called to rescue a 70-year-old man suspected of having suffered a heart attack in the Drakensberg - but it turned out to be altitude sickness, a spokesman said on Saturday.

NETCARE 911 paramedics were called to rescue a 70-year-old man suspected of having suffered a heart attack in the Drakensberg - but it turned out to be altitude sickness, a spokesman said on Saturday.

"The Cape Town man and a companion had been hiking for two days when he started feeling ill and they presumed he was having a heart attack," Chris Botha said.

But paramedics and the SAPS search and rescue team airlifted to Ntunjelaan Pass found that the man was instead suffering from altitude sickness, he said.

"When they airlifted him to the Cathedral Peak area the symptoms disappeared and he was left with his family," Botha said.

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