He fell to his death trying to get content for social media, officials say
Officials in Spain have said that a British influencer and daredevil has died after falling from the highest bridge in the country.
He was a 26-year-old British man who died yesterday (13 October) in Talavera de la Reina after he fell off the Castilla-La Mancha Bridge, which is 192 metres high at the tallest point.
The bridge is located to the west of Madrid and when it was opened was criticised for being a waste of money that didn’t have much traffic going across it, earning it the disparaging nickname ‘bridge to nowhere’.
According to local media, the emergency services were called to the bridge yesterday morning with national and local police, the fire department and paramedics attending.
A call for them was placed at 7:14am on the Sunday morning but all they could do was confirm that the man had died after falling off the Castilla-La Mancha Bridge.
A man has died after falling from the Castilla-La Mancha Bridge. (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
The daredevil’s body was recovered from the scene and taken to a funeral home.
Macarena Muñoz, councillor for citizen security, said that climbing the bridge was ‘totally prohibited and that we have reiterated on many occasions that it cannot be done under any circumstances’.
They added: “As we have been able to find out, they had come to Talavera to climb the bridge and create content for social networks, which has resulted in this unfortunate and sad outcome.”
A spokesperson for Spain’s National Police in Toledo told the Metro that the 26-year-old Brit was ‘about 40 to 50 metres up’ when he fell, and that neither he nor a 24-year-old man who was with him were wearing safety gear such as harnesses.
They added that the initial call was made by ‘a passing motorist’.
Spanish authorities said he wasn’t wearing protective gear, and they believe he was trying to get social media content. (Charly Lopez/Europa Press via Getty Images)
In their statement they said that the younger man was ‘in a state of shock initially and couldn’t even speak’ when they arrived on the scene, adding that he had since left the police station.
They said that the reason why the 26-year-old fell would be investigated, and that they were not planning to charge the 24-year-old with anything.
A decision to sanction him for illegally climbing the bridge would be left up to the local town hall.
This is not the first time someone has attempted to climb the Castilla-La Mancha Bridge for social media clout.
The Mirror reports that a pair of bloggers previously climbed it without any protective gear, and that something similar occurred in 2016.
The bridge was opened in 2011 and climbing up it has always been prohibited
Featured Image Credit: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images Charly Lopez/Europa Press via Getty Images
