A friend of a Bristol student who fell to his death climbing Greece's highest mountain has spoken of the struggle to save him.

Yannis Makridis has described how he tried to save Steve Wright, 22, who lost his grip while climbing up Mount Olympus.

University of the West of England physiotherapy student Mr Wright had hit a rock face and, badly injured, hung from his rope for more than three hours before rescuers arrived.

Mr Makridis said it took about five hours to get him from the mountain to an ambulance. But the efforts to save him were in vain.

In a message to Steve's mother Sherie, Mr Makridis said: "They tried to do everything possible to save his life. But Steve was very badly injured in the head, although he was wearing a new helmet, and had several other injuries to his body.

"Everyone was surprised he stayed alive for so many hours. They said that he was a true fighter.

"But half way back on the path his heartbeat was falling and he stopped breathing. They supplied him oxygen and did numerous medical treatments. He was transferred to the local hospital where his death was officially confirmed."

Police in the northern Greek region of Pieria said Mr Wright, from Gloucester, was at an altitude of about 2,300ft when he fell on Thursday evening. He died at about 1am British time on Friday.

Mr Makridis, 21, who is from Greece, said Steve was leading the climb when he fell, but he had put three safety devices in place.

"Steve went to a point were he 'burned' and he couldn't continue, so he told me he was going to fall, I told him to try to reverse down but he replied that his hands were pumped and he couldn't do it," he said. "So I took all the slack from the rope to make the fall small. I never imagined what would happen next – all the gear placements Steve had placed as he was climbing were coming off one by one, like a zipper."

He said Mr Wright fell about 20 metres but was stopped by the bolts on the pitch used to secure him.

"Because the fall was so big Steve went down with speed and hit the wall of rock 10 metres below me," he said. "We were lucky the belaying used to secure us was made from bolts otherwise we'd both have fallen about 80m down.

"I saw Steve hanging 10m below senseless, I knew he was really badly hurt or even dead. After 30 seconds I could see he was breathing very hard and it seemed he was fighting for his life.

"I secured him in that position but I couldn't raise him up because he had most of the gear on him. I immediately called the rescue teams, police, and all the local climbers to help us.

"Steve was helpless for more than three hours hanging on the rope till the rescue team came. The only thing I could do was to talk to him and give him courage and try to keep him awake. I'm not sure if he understood me but I think he could at some point."

Mr Makridis paid tribute to his friend's generosity. He said: "I truly loved his character. When I first met him in France he was so friendly to everyone. I'm not as sociable but Steve came and talked to me and introduced me to so many people."

He added: "He wanted to live the life to the fullest and that was the reason he loved to climb."