Tribhuvan Army Club pilot Nisim Thapa died in a freak accident at a paragliding event during the Ninth National Games in Pokhara on Sunday, resulting in the suspension of all paragliding games.

This is the first time in the history of the National Games that an athlete has died after an incident on the course of the competition.

The 26-year-old pilot, competing in the cross-country event, lost control of his paraglider and fell some 100 metres to the jungle and picked up serious injuries. It was the first day of paragliding that kicked off from Sarangkot of Kaski. He was rushed to nearby Metro City Hospital in Pokhara where doctors declared him dead during the course of treatment.

National Sports Council (NSC), the organiser of the National Games, later suspended paragliding from the event.

Hours after NSC’s declaration, the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal also declared the suspension of all paragliding flights across the country until further notice. According to Sundar Tiwari, spokesperson and deputy superintendent of District Police Office in Kaski, Thapa was taking flight on Blue Sky Company’s paraglide and he fell from the air after his glide lost control five minutes into the flight.