(Newser)
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A 25-year-old Israeli man managed to climb the Eiffel Tower and leap to his death. Cops spotted the man, wearing a backpack, climbing up the exterior of the landmark after it was closed to the public to the third-level observatory deck of the tower, which is close to 1,000 feet high. The site was quickly evacuated, and medical experts and a brigade of firefighters trained in climbing and suicide rescue attempted to talk the man down. But he spoke little, listening instead to headphones, officials told the Telegraph. After about 90 minutes he "turned around and jumped. He did a kind of artistic, swallow dive, launching himself" some ten feet off the tower, said a spokesman. It was the first suicide from the Eiffel Tower in two years, reports AP. An unrelated woman tried to commit suicide about 24 hours later yesterday, but was rescued by a helicopter.
