Man dies in parachute leap from Eiffel Tower

A NORWEGIAN man was killed after jumping from the Eiffel Tower when a parachute he was wearing got stuck on an upper deck of the monument, officials said yesterday.

Preliminary investigations indicated the man planned to film his jump as part of publicity for a Norwegian clothing brand, police said.

The man, 31, entered the tower with a hidden parachute and a helmet that had a small video camera attached to it, said the official at Paris police headquarters.

On reaching the tower’s 380ft second deck, the man jumped. Investigators believe his parachute got caught in the structure, detaching it from his body.

He continued his fall without the parachute, crashing onto the 182ft high first deck of the famous Paris landmark, according to police and an official for SNTE, the company that manages the Eiffel Tower.

Hundreds have died at the tower, 1,063ft tall with its flagpole, since it opened as a star attraction of the Paris World Fair of 1889.

Most of the deaths were suicides. The first was reportedly a printer’s mechanic who hanged himself from the tower’s north pillar in 1891.

The tower has also long attracted daredevils. A British couple parachuted from the top deck in 1984 and in 1987 a New Zealander bungee-jumped off the second floor.

Franz Reichel, an Austrian tailor, was killed leaping from the first deck in 1912 to test a tent-like parachute coat he had invented.

He is said to have died of fright before hitting the ground.