A German tourist who had to be airlifted to safety after a six-metre fall on Cape Town’s Lions Head has been taken to hospital.

The man fell early on Sunday morning while trying to retrieve an item accidentally dropped by another hiker.

“He was scrambling down below the trail, when he slipped and fell  ... sustaining injuries to his left leg,” a spokesperson from Wilderness Search And Rescue in the Western Cape said.

A medical team hiked to the patient and the Western Cape department of health emergency helicopter was called out. The patient was hoisted from the scene in a stretcher and flown to a nearby landing zone, where he was transferred to a waiting ambulance.

The patient was delivered to hospital and all rescue team workers were safely off Lions Head by 9:45am on Easter Sunday.