ALDER STREAM TOWNSHIP (AP) – Three men were hospitalized when they walked off a bluff and fell into a 60-foot gorge in the dead of night, officials said.

Five friends were staying at a camp in this northern Franklin County township when they began riding their all-terrain vehicles at about midnight on Friday, according to Mark Latti, spokesman for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

Using a single flashlight, the men got off the ATVs and walked off the trail to get a view of a gorge and waterfall on Alder Stream. But when they got to the cliff, three of them walked right off the edge, Latti said.

The area where the men fell is known as a dangerous spot, even in daylight, because of the thick brush, tree roots and rough ground, said Assistant Eustis Fire Chief Sidney Shane. The fall could have been fatal if not for the water at the bottom, he said.

More than 50 firefighters, emergency medical personnel and wilderness rescue teams worked through the night to bring out the injured men.

William Irving and Lewis Bruns, both of Gray, suffered back injuries and were flown by helicopter to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston at about 6 a.m. Saturday. Keith Elder, 36, of Windham, broke his ankle and went by vehicle to a hospital, Latti said.

3 men stabbed in Waterville

WATERVILLE (AP) – Police were investigating a triple stabbing at an apartment house that left three men hospitalized with severe injuries.

Police were called shortly before 6 a.m. Saturday by a motorist who reported seeing two men lying in pools of blood outside a variety store, said Deputy Police Chief Joseph Massey.

When police arrived, they found that the two men had been stabbed multiple times. Police then followed a trail of blood to a nearby apartment house on Gold Street where they found another man who had been stabbed.

Police did not identify the victims, saying they needed to contact their relatives, who live out-of-state.

Massey said the bloody scene looked like something “out of a Halloween horror show.” The men found on the street had stab wounds to their upper torsos, shoulders and back, he said, and one man had a wound that was described as a slit throat.

“At this point, there seems to have been some dispute about money; and I’m not saying it is money owed for drugs – just about money,” Massey said.

Male body found on beach

CAPE ELIZABETH (AP) – A man’s body was found on a beach in Cape Elizabeth near the spot where a lobsterman went missing this month when his boat capsized in rough seas.

Police have not identified the body, which was found at Crescent Beach State Park on Saturday morning by a person walking the beach.

The spot is not far from where lobsterman Steve Smith went missing when his 38-foot boat was overturned by a rogue wave on Sept. 13. Two crewmen on the boat swam to safety, but Smith could not be found.

There were no indications of foul play on the body found Saturday, police said. The body was taken to the medical examiner’s office in Augusta for an autopsy.

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