A suspected house robber plunged to his death after falling off a cliff‚ apparently while trying to escape security personnel at a gated estate in Hillcrest‚ Durban‚ on Sunday night.

It is understood that two men had attempted to force their way into the property when they were spotted by security guards.

The pair fled on foot‚ with one of the men falling from a waterfall in his haste to escape.

Police Search and Rescue Unit officers‚ aided by a specially trained search dog‚ spent two days searching for him in the ravine‚ which skirts the Greenvale Village Estate.

Paramedics who had rushed to the scene found the man alive at the foot of the steep drop‚ but despite their best efforts to save him he died in the bush. Rescue technicians then used a rope and pulley system to haul the man’s body to the top of the slope.

After viewing CCTV footage of the escape‚ officers returned to search the area for the second suspected house robber. It is thought that the man landed on a ledge and escaped along the fence line of the property.