Police have issued a key update following the shock death of a woman who plunged 500 feet from a popular rock climbing spot in Spain.

The woman, 21, died when she lost her footing on the famous Caminito del Rey pathway in Malaga, with her body having been discovered by emergency services after the alarm was raised just after 7pm on Saturday. A male friend she was hiking with miraculously cheated death by grabbing onto a bush-covered rock that was jutting out from the rest after he fell.