A man died on Saturday night in Argentina when he threw himself into the void from the stands of the Monumental stadium, the main stage of local soccer.


The 53-year-old man leaned into the intermediate tray of the River Plate stadium, scene of the 1978 World Cup final, looked down and threw himself in a free fall of 16 meters towards the lower stand. His head crashed into the cement and the blow caused his almost immediate death.


At the time of what all indications indicate was a suicide, River was measured to the Defense and Justice team by the local League. They took just 15 minutes of play, and ten minutes later, after insistent chants of the fans asking not to continue playing, the referee and the captains of both teams agreed to suspend the game, which was played to a full stadium, with 83,000 spectators.


"It's horrible news, it exceeds Argentine football. From our humble place we accompany families who are suffering. During the game we didn't understand what had happened. When the referee warned us that it was going to be suspended, we understood automatically," said Ezequiel Unsain, captain of Defense and Justice.



"La Nación" pointed out that there is no doubt that it was a suicide: "The security videos of the club confirmed from the first moment that the person threw himself, that he threw himself into the void. He died on the spot, as a result of the fall. In no video is determined, at the same time, a fight, a struggle, a previous push."


The man, who lived on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, had gone to the stadium with his daughter, who followed the match in a different stand. The young woman learned of her father's death when, seeing that he did not arrive at the bus that was supposed to take them back home, she began to ask for him.


"I'm a relative of a missing person," he said. Identified then as the daughter of the man who had just died, the president of River, Jorge Brito, had to hug and console her when she broke down in tears upon receiving the news that her father had died.


  • Argentina
  • Events
  • Suicide Prevention

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