Norwegian dies in Eiffel Tower parachute jump

PARIS, May 17 (AFP) – A 31-year-old Norwegian man died late Monday in an unauthorized parachute jump from the second level of the Eiffel Tower, police said Tuesday, launching an inquiry into the accident.  

According to investigators, three Norwegians were attempting to film an advertisement for a clothing line at the famed Paris landmark.  

One jumped from the second level of the tower, 115 meters (380 feet) up, but he did not clear the first level of the iron structure, and died instantly after smashing into the metal beams, police said.  

The Eiffel Tower, which stands 324 meters high, draws six million visitors a year, making it one of the world’s most popular tourist attractions.  

A tower spokesman told AFP that barriers had been placed “everywhere” to prevent people from committing suicide by jumping from the structure, adding that parachuting accidents were even more rare.  

But the tower’s criss-crossing beams make it possible for people to sneak through.  

The spokesman said, without offering specific figures, that suicides were rare at the tower, noting: “There are some years when there are two or three, but other years when there are no suicides at all.”  

He added that all requests to scale the tower or jump from it were systematically denied.  

Before Monday’s accident, four Norwegians were intercepted by security agents at the Montparnasse Tower, a 56-story skyscraper in the south of the French capital that houses offices and welcomes 600,000 tourists a year.  

Two of them were base-jumpers, who were preparing to parachute from the top of the building.