Fall down sewer kills gecko hunter

SYDNEY - A 21-year-old man who was out in the middle of the night hunting geckos to feed a pet snake has died after falling 70m down a disused sewer shaft in Sydney.

The Daceyville man's body was recovered from a former sewage outlet below a Malabar headland in Sydney's eastern suburbs, police said.

The man was collecting geckos with a friend on Saturday night when he fell down the shaft leading to the former sewage outlet.

Police said he went through the doorway of a cement structure and stepped into the disused shaft.

AAP