English-speaking tourist jumps to his death from Eiffel tower

Security was stepped up around the Eiffel Tower today after an English-speaking man climbed to the top and then jumped to his death.

The 25-year-old suicide victim, who has not been named but who came from Israel, was spotted at the Paris tourist attraction late on Sunday evening.

Police evacuated and sealed off the area after the man was seen scaling the 1,063ft tower, at around 11.30pm.

He evaded all security and almost reached the very summit of the historic 1,063ft (324m) structure before hurling himself off.

Eerily, a woman attempted a copycat suicide on Monday morning, but that failed when the authorities intervened by helicopter before she had got high enough to hurt herself.

Firefighters had earlier tried to talk the man down but failed. It is thought he jumped from around 1,000ft, said Frederic Grosjean, deputy spokesman for the Paris firefighters’ brigade.

Referring to Sunday’s drama, a Paris police source said: ‘He got up on the tower’s western pillar soon after 11.30pm, when it was closed to the public.

‘He was approaching the third, highest level of the tower when rescue climbers managed to get close to him and tried to talk him down.

‘There was a very tense and emotional period of negotiation but all attempts to talk the man down failed. Instead he jumped, landed on the second floor of the tower and died soon after midnight. Everything had been done to try and save him.’

The tower was open as usual on Monday after the incident but that did not stop a 30-year-old woman trying to jump off the first stage of the tower.

Security guards managed to hold her back, before she was lifted off the iron-clad structure by helicopter. She was taken to a nearby hospital where she was undergoing psychological tests.

Eiffel Tower management refused to comment on the number of suicides at the site every year, saying: ‘It is always too many.’

Numerous measures are in place to try and stop people using the tower to end their lives, including security fences and safety nets but ‘suicides have been all too common in the past’, said a management source. He added, however, that Sunday’s was the ‘first successful suicide in around two years and that the situation was improving.’