"Divers searched the water around Niagara Falls on Monday, searching for a Toronto-area woman who is believed to be dead after toppling over a railing and into the water a day before.
Niagara Parks Police said the incident happened at about 8:30 p.m. when two female international students were taking photos on the Canadian side of the falls.
Trouble arose when one of the women, a 19-year-old from Japan, climbed onto the concrete ledge next to Horseshoe Falls to pose for a picture.
Police said the woman was sitting with her legs straddling the barrier. When she attempted to stand up again, she lost her footing and fell into the water below.
Kari Wilson, a visitor from Vancouver, told reporters, "I wish I could have done something." She wiped tears from her eyes as she spoke.
"She had one leg on either side straddling this post, and just very casual. She was just having a conversation with her friend," said Wilson, standing at the site near the falls where the woman fell.
The victim had been sitting casually on a stone part of the fencing and chatting with her friend, she said. "Her purse was sitting right behind her and I thought, 'Well, that's a stupid place to keep your purse,'" Wilson said.
Minutes later, the woman plunged into the Niagara River, about 24 metres upstream from the top of the falls.
The current quickly swept her over the 54-metre-high falls.
Emergency crews, including a provincial police helicopter, spent most of Monday searching for the woman with no success. Police told CTV Toronto that it could be weeks before a body is found.
The Japanese consulate in Toronto has been asked to contact the victim's family in Japan.
Niagara Parks Police Chief Douglas Kane said the woman's fall is a sober reminder that risking one's life for a photograph isn't worth it.
"If you're a young adult and you choose to climb over a restraining barrier, unfortunately there's consequences…in this case they were tragic," he said.
In his 35 years on the job, however, Kane said this is the first time he recalls someone falling.
Police searching for the woman's body Monday found human remains in the swirling waters below the falls, but they turned out to be remains of an unidentified male.
CTV Toronto's Austin Delany said that security images captured at the scene show that the woman was using an umbrella.
"A gust of wind may have played a role," he said.
The incident comes a day after a 27-year-old man survived a fall into the Niagara Gorge, just north of the Rainbow Bridge.
The man fell into the Gorge after trying to get a better view of Niagara Falls with his friends. He suffered a head injury and a serious leg fracture.
Niagara Parks Police said the incident happened at about 8:30 p.m. when two female international students were taking photos on the Canadian side of the falls.
Trouble arose when one of the women, a 19-year-old from Japan, climbed onto the concrete ledge next to Horseshoe Falls to pose for a picture.
Police said the woman was sitting with her legs straddling the barrier. When she attempted to stand up again, she lost her footing and fell into the water below.
Kari Wilson, a visitor from Vancouver, told reporters, "I wish I could have done something." She wiped tears from her eyes as she spoke.
"She had one leg on either side straddling this post, and just very casual. She was just having a conversation with her friend," said Wilson, standing at the site near the falls where the woman fell.
The victim had been sitting casually on a stone part of the fencing and chatting with her friend, she said. "Her purse was sitting right behind her and I thought, 'Well, that's a stupid place to keep your purse,'" Wilson said.
Minutes later, the woman plunged into the Niagara River, about 24 metres upstream from the top of the falls.
The current quickly swept her over the 54-metre-high falls.
Emergency crews, including a provincial police helicopter, spent most of Monday searching for the woman with no success. Police told CTV Toronto that it could be weeks before a body is found.
The Japanese consulate in Toronto has been asked to contact the victim's family in Japan.
Niagara Parks Police Chief Douglas Kane said the woman's fall is a sober reminder that risking one's life for a photograph isn't worth it.
"If you're a young adult and you choose to climb over a restraining barrier, unfortunately there's consequences…in this case they were tragic," he said.
In his 35 years on the job, however, Kane said this is the first time he recalls someone falling.
Police searching for the woman's body Monday found human remains in the swirling waters below the falls, but they turned out to be remains of an unidentified male.
CTV Toronto's Austin Delany said that security images captured at the scene show that the woman was using an umbrella.
"A gust of wind may have played a role," he said.
The incident comes a day after a 27-year-old man survived a fall into the Niagara Gorge, just north of the Rainbow Bridge.
The man fell into the Gorge after trying to get a better view of Niagara Falls with his friends. He suffered a head injury and a serious leg fracture." - CTVToronto.ca
"OTTAWA — US authorities recovered the body of a young Japanese woman who was swept over Niagara Falls this week from the Canadian side, New York state park police said Friday.
"The body of a woman recovered Thursday morning from lower Niagara River has been identified by the Erie Country Medical Examiner's office," a police spokeswoman told AFP.
"It is confirmed that the woman is the one and the same with respect to an incident where a woman was reported falling into the waters of the Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side of the border on August 14."
Local media identified the woman as Ayano Tokumasu, a 19-year-old Japanese student who had been visiting the falls with a friend. Her body was spotted on Thursday floating near the shore of a popular US tourist attraction by an employee who alerted police.
Tokumasu had lost her footing while climbing onto a railing near the river's edge at about 8:30 pm Sunday (0030 GMT Monday) and was swept over the Horseshoe Falls.
"The subject female was observed climbing over the railing and straddling it while looking out at the falls," Inspector Paul Forcier of the Niagara Parks Police Service said on Monday. "She was holding an umbrella at the time."
"The young woman stood up in what appeared to be an attempt to climb back over when she lost her balance and fell into the waters."
She was presumed drowned.
Canadian and US authorities searched for several hours for her body on Monday, but came up instead with the "unidentified human remains of a male" in the lower Niagara River.
Niagara Parks Police Service said in a statement on Thursday the male has since been identified as a 41-year-old Hamilton, Ontario resident who had previously been reported missing.
His name is being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
"Foul play is not suspected in this occurrence, which is unrelated to the original incident involving the female victim," police said." - AFP
No comments:
Post a Comment