Harry Rossetani / AP
Niagara Falls emergency officials rescue a man who plunged over the falls in an apparent suicide attempt on May 21, 2012.
Reuters reports — A man survived a 174-foot plunge over Niagara's Horseshoe Falls on Monday but sustained life-threatening injuries, Canadian police said.
The man, whose name has not been released, became only the third person known to have lived through a fall over the massive cataract without safety devices.
Canada's Niagara Parks Police said witnesses reported seeing the man climb over a retaining wall about 20 feet above the brink of the falls at mid-morning and deliberately jump into the swift waters.
He surfaced a few seconds later in the lower Niagara River Basin below, near an observation platform, police said.
He "was located by a Niagara Parks Police officer along the rocky shoreline as he collapsed in waters that were up to the subject's waist," police said in a statement. Read the full story.
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Corey Larocque / Niagara Falls Review - QMI via Reuters
The man who plunged over the falls sits at the edge of the Niagara River as firefighter Brandon Fife and Niagara Parks Police Sgt. Chris Gallagher tend to him.
Harry Rossetani / AP
In a rescue that lasted about 30 minutes, staff from several agencies extricated the man, thought to be about 40 years old.
He was flown by an air ambulance to a hospital in Hamilton, Ontario, for treatment