Moroccan news reports say the deaths there of a Christchurch-based couple were not the result of a tragic tramping accident, as staff of the dead man's New Zealand firm have been told.
Four boys were reported have been orphaned on a family holiday to Morocco, after their Christchurch-based parents were killed when a tramping trip went tragically awry.
Staff of GHD engineering firm were told in an internal email that Christchurch engineer Roger Lamb went to the aid of his wife when she apparently slipped and fell to her death down a cliff in the north African country.
When Mr Lamb tried to clamber down to his wife Tilly he slipped and hit his head, staff were told.
Mr Lamb went into a coma, was taken to hospital, but never recovered, and his life support was turned off.
But Moroccan newspaper Liberation and other news sources there said Mrs Lamb died from a fall at a villa, while Mr Lamb suffered his ultimately fatal injuries four days later.
French-language news sites reported Mr Lamb had jumped from the second story of the Sofitel Hotel in coastal city Essaouira.
His wife, 44, died in an Essaouira hospital, after her fall from a rented house in the ancient medina.
GHD is an international network of engineers, architects and environmental scientists.
Mr Lamb was an experienced geotechnical engineer, who moved to Christchurch from England last year, after running his own business.
He was educated at Birmingham University, and was used to outdoor adventuring, as he was a keen fell runner in Great Britain.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs told NZPA it was aware of the case, while no one at GHD wanted to talk to the news media.
The British High Commission in Wellington was unaware of the deaths, while in Morocco the British embassy in Rabat was closed.
An unnamed GHD employee said staff had been told of the tragedy by email.
It was "real crazy" and staff were struggling to deal with the shock of a almost unbelievable story.
Mr Lamb's online CV said he came to New Zealand from Pershore in Worcester, in the west of England.
Julian Maund, a former colleague in England, said the news came as a shock.
He had spoken to Mr Lamb recently and no mention of a diversion to Morocco was made.
"This is pretty shocking stuff, I must say," Mr Maund said from Worcester when told of the initial reports of a tramping accident.
"I had spoken to him a couple of weeks ago, and was told he was coming back."
The eldest of the Lamb children was in his late teens, with the youngest about 11, he said.
"It's all very bizarre."
