A HILL walker seriously hurt after a fall in the Cairngorms at the weekend is lucky to be alive according to police.

The 25-year-old man, part of a group from England, fell while walking with two other people in Coire Sputan Dearg, on Ben Macdui, Scotland's second highest mountain, on Sunday.

He slid down about 800ft from the edge of a cliff. A large scale rescue operation involving Braemar, Police Scotland and Aberdeen Mountain Rescue Teams was launched and the injured man was airlifted to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary by an RAF rescue helicopter.

Chief Inspector Andrew Todd, mountain rescue co-ordinator in Grampian, said: "He wasn't a climber with a helmet and equipment. To survive that fall was quite remarkable."