Man Says His Friend Warned Him to Run Before Dying in a Rockslide: 'He Saved Me by Screaming'

NEED TO KNOW

• Hamza Benhilal, 33, and Khaled El Gamal, 28, were visiting Banff National Park in Calgary, Canada, on Thursday, June 19

• During their visit, the cliff they were on gave way and formed a rockslide that headed for the two hikers

• Benhilal saw the falling boulders and warned El Gamal to run, but Benhilal died due to the natural disaster

Two friends were visiting Canada's Banff National Park on June 19, when they encountered a dangerous rockslide that killed one of them.

Hamza Benhilal, 33, and his friend Khaled El Gamal, 28, were on the Bow Glacier Falls hiking trail at the national park in Calgary when the side of the cliff collapsed around 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 19. Benhilal was killed in the accident.

Benhilal, originally from Morocco, and El Gamal, originally from Egypt, heard a loud sound, which El Gamal said sounded like a thunderstorm. He then turned around to look at the source of the sound and saw a large boulder fall from the mountain and then shatter into pieces.

“I froze like a deer in headlights,” El Gamal told the Canadian Press, adding that he was snapped out of his trance when Benhilal screamed at him to run. “He saved me by screaming.”

“He did scream out loud, telling me to run, run, run. And that’s what helped me get back on to my senses and start running, because I was in shock. It seemed like a movie scene, just seeing rocks coming from the side,” El Gamal told CTV News.

“It wasn’t for him, I would have just stood my ground there in shock as I froze. I don’t know, my mind just disengaged at that moment,” he said. “And he screamed and told me to run, run, run. And then, I survived.”

El Gamal was able to outrun the rockslide but lost sight of his friend doing so.

“The rocks obviously were so fast, they were falling,” he told CTV. “So, they hit my legs and I fell to the ground. And then all I remember is I hid my head, I covered my head with my arms, just kept my back towards the rocks and just kept suffering the rock falls. Rock after rock was hitting my back.”

“I was bleeding and looking around,” El Gamal told the Canadian Press. “I was soaked in blood and barely managing myself,” he said, noting that he also vomited a few times. “It was the most painful experience I’ve had.”

El Gamal suffered non-critical injuries, including fractures to his scapula and pelvis, as well as cuts and tears to his face, shoulder, back, legs and feet.

El Gamal walked off the trail to find help for his friend, but he soon realized no one could locate Benhilal. “I kept telling them, my friend, where’s my friend? And nobody was able to locate him. Nobody was able to see him. We did not know what happened until we were told he was found under the rubble there,” he told CTV News.

Another person, retired university professor Jutta Hinrichs, 70, was also killed by the rockslide. Two others were injured.

El Gamal noted how helpful the other hikers were when searching for Benhilal.

“The ones that stayed there, rather than just take their stuff and go and leave, they stayed with us risking their own lives to support us, to get through the hard time and to stay awake and to wait for the rescuers to come," he told CTV.

“The scene is always being played at the back of our heads,” he said, adding that those who have visited him in the hospital are also seeing and feeling the trauma of the situation.

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El Gamal said he thought of Benhilal as a “big brother.”

“He was a very, very generous and a very nice person. The person that whenever you are even in trouble, you would go on to talk to him because he had this wisdom,” he told CTV. “I would reach out to him whenever I was in need of advice.”

“My ask is that for us to send him to Morocco,” El Gamal said. “We were given a very large invoice for the funeral, which we’re hoping anybody would figure something out to compensate the family for their loss.”

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