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A British backpacker has plunged 80ft to his death during a late-night cliff-top walk with a girl in Sri Lanka, it has emerged.

Tom Perry, 23, died after falling onto rocks at the foot of the sheer cliff at Weligama, a popular tourist destination on the south of the island.

According to a witness, Tom, from Christchurch, Dorset, had spent the evening eating and drinking at a cliff-top restaurant and bar.

He and a young woman, a fellow traveller, left the Tiki restaurant at about 3am and headed towards the seaside clifftop.

The pair are said to have sat on towels on the wrong side of a rudimentary wooden safety fence close to the edge.

It is thought Tom either lost his bearings or slipped and fell over the cliff.

The emergency services were called but there was nothing they could do to save Tom, who was declared dead at the scene at about 4am local time last Saturday.

(Image: Google Maps)

Tom’s parents Nicholas and Joanne Perry, who live in the Mudeford area of Christchurch, were too upset to talk about the tragedy.

Tom had been staying at a hostel in Weligama, a resort popular with travellers and surfers.

A spokesman from Weligama Police Station said: “We were alerted to an incident of a victim falling 80 feet down a cliffside.

“His body ended up on the beach below Tiki Cliff Top Restaurant and Bar.

“The authorities have completed a post mortem. According to their results all of our enquiries in to the incident are now over.”

Ben Patrick, a friend who was travelling with Tom in Sri Lanka, posted a moving tribute on Facebook .

He wrote: “On Friday night a tragic accident occurred and we lost a best friend and a brother.

“Saturday we did a paddle out here in memory of Tom Perry with beers as there is no other way we could of done, as it’s what he would have wanted.

(Image: Getty)

“Never before have I believed in life after death but on the moment of celebrating his life and opening a beer in his name, the sun shone down through the clouds on to the beers in our hands as well as the music of a mosque echoed through the circle.

“He’s looking down on us with heavenly rum. RIP brother everyone will miss you.”

Rajeen Krish, who was working at the Tiki restaurant on the night in question, said: “He was here having dinner with some friends, maybe six or seven of them.

“He had been drinking and had been with a tall white girl, I think he had met her at the hostel.

“There is a fence on the cliff but Tom and the girl sat behind it on towels with no protection. I’m not sure what happened but he fell on to the rocks at the bottom. It is 80ft there.

“He was gone and the girl was really upset.”