No. 1 Eiffel Tower, Paris
A 25-year-old leapt to his death from the Eiffel Tower (Reuters) Reuters

A 25-year-old Israeli man horrified onlookers in Paris when he hurled himself off the Eiffel Tower and fell to his death.

Police called a medical expert and specialist suicide rescue squad to reason with the man who was seen hanging on the outside of the structure. He ignored them and jumped from between the second and third levels of the tower, falling more than 500ft.

Frédéric Grosjean told the Telegraph that the authorites tried to talk the man, who spoke in broken English, for 90 minutes, but he ignored them to listen to music in his headphones before jumping.

A second suicide attempt was successfully foiled by officers who talked down a woman in her 30s who had climbed the tower. She was taken off the structure by helicopter.

Officials have refused to comment on the number of successful suicides from the tower. "It's always too many," they said.