A 26-year-old British man died after falling from a famous bridge in central Spain while trying to create climbing-related social media content, according to local authorities.
The man fell to his death at 7:14 a.m. Sunday while climbing the Castilla-La Mancha Bridge in Talavera de la Reina, a small city about 75 miles from Madrid. El Mundo report. It was stated that besides the victim, whose identity has not yet been determined, there was also a 24-year-old man who survived the incident.
It is illegal to climb the iconic span, Spain's highest cable-stayed bridge; but since its construction it has attracted climbers, other social media-driven daredevils and even illegal racing activities.
Macarena Muñoz, the city's Council Member Responsible for Citizen Security, made a press statement at the city hall regarding the escalation attempt turning into a tragedy and stated, “This is something that is completely prohibited and which we have reiterated many times, cannot be done under any circumstances.”
The statement said that the two men came specifically to climb the bridge “in order to create content for social networks”, which led to an “unfortunate and sad outcome”.
Accordingly metro.co.ukA local police spokesman said the climber was “at a height of approximately 40 to 50 meters when he fell, approximately a quarter of the total height of the bridge.” The exact cause of the decline has not yet been determined. According to another source in the same report, neither man was wearing a protective seat belt.
The press release confirmed that a judge and coroner transported the body to a local funeral home. A UK Foreign Office spokesman said in a later report: “We are supporting the family of a British man who died in Spain and are in contact with local authorities.” People.
Dubbed the “bridge to nowhere” by detractors, the Castilla-La Mancha Bridge is a dramatic Golden Gate-style span with a pair of iconic leaning towers soaring up to 630 feet and more than 20 miles of cables built across its 1,143-foot length. Across the Tagus River.
The bridge, which attracted limited traffic and cost approximately 74 million euros to build, was widely criticized in the media as a waste of money when it was completed on 17 October 2011. It was never designed for.