UPDATED at 12:20 p.m. Thursday with man's condition

ST. LOUIS COUNTY • A manhunt for one of two men suspected of trying to steal scrap metal ended after he plunged off a steep cliff at a rock quarry early Wednesday morning in far north St. Louis County.

The man survived the fall, which a fire captain estimates was a drop of at least 100 feet. The man was talking to rescuers and in a lot of pain. He was rushed by medical helicopter to a hospital. He was in serious but stable condition, police say.

"The cliff was really tall and we were surprised he was talking to us," said Capt. Glenn Murphy of the Spanish Lake Fire Protection District. "It's possible he hit some trees on the way down that were growing out of the side of the cliff," somewhat cushioning his fall, Murphy added.

It all began about 1 a.m. Wednesday when St. Louis County police were called to check on a suspicious U-Haul rental truck. The truck was backed up to several pallets of scrap metal. The area was near train tracks close to the Lewis Bridge and Highway 367, said Police Officer Rick Eckhard of the St. Louis County Police Department.

When the men saw police, they ran off. One of them tried to hide, but police found him quickly.

Police searched for the second man, tracking him to the Fort Bell Quarry at 14200 Lewis and Clark Boulevard.

Eckhard said police continued searching for the man and found that he ran through some woods and went off a cliff at the quarry.

Rescuers from the Spanish Lake Fire Protection District were called at about 3 a.m. to the southeast end of the quarry. To get to the injured man, the firefighters parked their rescue vehicles about 30 yards away and had to lay down backboards across a muddy creek to get footing to cross it. They also had to hike through heavy vegetation and a wooded area, Murphy said.

They brought him to an ambulance and a helicopter took him to Barnes-Jewish Hospital at 4:15 a.m. Police did not release the man's name.

Murphy said the fire trucks had their lights shining to the top of the cliff, and he estimated the cliff at more than 10 stories. Police were estimating the man fell a minimum of 50 feet.

The quarry is home to the Central Stone Company. The incident happened before workers had arrived for the day, and quarry superintendent Casimir Eichenseer said he had no information on the man's drop.

Eckhard said police have no charges against either man yet. He said they were trying to question them about their suspicious behavior at the train tracks. The railroad has its own police force, which will investigate which company owns the scrap metal that was on the pallets, he said.

Wednesday's case is similar to one in October 2010 in which a burglar died. That man, Donald Zakrzewski, bolted from a Ladue home on Old Warson Road just after midnight one Saturday night. He scaled an 8-foot-high chain-link fence surrounding a quarry, then ran through a heavily wooded area in the dark before plunging off the cliff.

Zakrzewski, 42, of St. Louis, fell 50 to 60 feet to his death.