A tourist from the North-East who suffered spinal injuries after crashing into a South African mountain while paragliding was said last night to be ''bearing up''.

Diane Miller, 34, from Newcastle, was taking a tandem flight when she slammed into a cliff edge of the Overberg Mountains near Hermanus in the Western Cape when her glider collapsed.

She was left dangling from a ledge, while the emergency services were scrambled to the scene.

Miss Miller was airlifted to hospital after a four-hour rescue operation.

Sue Scholtz, of Vincent Pallotti Hospital in Cape Town, where Miss Miller is being cared for, said: ''She's quite happy and is bearing up.''

She added: ''She's doing fine. She has fractured her right leg and fractured her right ankle and has spinal injuries.''

Ms Scholtz said Miss Miller was from Newcastle and that her boyfriend Mike Dewick was at her bedside.

Miss Miller was taking the flight with veteran instructor Rob de Villiers Roux when their two-man canopy hit the side of the mountain on Easter Monday.

Mr de Villiers Roux, who escaped uninjured, said: "Everything was fine until we just started hitting bad air. The glider collapsed and we swung into the mountain.

''There was nothing I could do. I'm broken about it.''

Mr de Villiers Roux, whose has been paragliding for more than 15 years and who works for a company called The A Team, said: ''She's in hospital with a broken back and both her legs are broken.''

The accident happened at the popular Hermanus launch site, 80 miles east of Cape Town.

Gary McCormick, base manager of the South African Red Cross Air Mercy Service, said: ''At the moment it's being treated as an accident and an investigation is underway.''