Woman airlifted to safety as four hikers fall near Hollywood sign

A woman had to be rescued while hiking near the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles on Sunday, according to Los Angeles fire officials.

The woman fell down a 15 foot hill near the sign near the sign, with “potential trauma injuries” according to a statement released by the Los Angeles Fire Department.

The 30-year-old woman was airlifted from Runyon Canyon Park to a nearby hospital.

The woman’s fall was one of four unrelated hiking accidents near the sign that day.

In one case a man fell 75 feet over the side of a hill and had to be rescued using a “two-line roper system.” Two other hikers, a man and a woman, were rescued from the area. The man was airlifted out after suffering an “injury to his lower body” and the woman was hoisted from Bronson Canyon after also suffering an “injury to her lower body.”

Hiking is a controversial topic in the neighbourhoods surrounding the Hollywood sign. A 2015 Hollywood Reporter article examined the growing tension between residents and the droves of hikers - empowered by the Internet and GPS to navigate the winding switchbacks of the Hollywood Hills - journeying to the sign.

Some residents of the wealthy neighbourhoods surrounding the sign complained that the influx of tourists venturing to the sign had disrupted the idyllic ambiance they’d paid so much money to realise. Others reported instances of hikers taking nude photos near the scene or of injured hikers coming to their doors to ask for bandages. Some complained that hikers blocked their driveways and - in one instance - urinated in public on their property.

Visiting the sign is largely unregulated.

Today, hikers pass signs warning them that they’re entering mountain lion country, that their GPS’s are wrong and that roads are closed to local traffic only.