State officers have cited four men for entering Manoa Falls Trail, which was closed Friday evening after a rock slide near the upper pool.

The state Department of Land and Natural Resources said conservation and enforcement officers who were at the trail-head Sunday afternoon to tell hikers that the trail is closed cited four men whom allegedly ducked under yellow police tape to enter the trail. The first three hikers, ages 31 to 42, are visitors from Denmark, Germany, and Russia, who were cited at about 1:45 p.m.

At 3 p.m. a 42-year-old man from China was spotted trying to duck under the police tape, and was cited.

Robert Farrell, chief of DLNR’s Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement, said in a news release that people who ignore the trail closure, “put your own life at risk and those of emergency first responders. Rockfalls aren’t on a clock. They strike with no warning and it’s pretty insensitive of people not to consider the danger they put their potential rescuers in,”

State officials said that a day before Friday’s rockfall, a team from the Na Ala Hele Trails and Access Program had been standing at the same spot.

Aaron Lowe of Na Ala Hele said, “People really need to take these closures seriously. Lives have been lost in the past when people enter into areas that were closed for the sole purpose of protecting them.”

State experts and a private engineering firm were to start assessing the rock slide hazard today to help state officials decide when to reopen the Manoa Falls and Aihualama trails, the DLNR said.