A 26-year-old British man attempting to climb a pylon on Spain’s tallest bridge for social media plunged hundreds of feet to his death, local authorities said.
The man, who has yet to be named by police, was accompanied by a friend as he tried climbing the Castilla-La Mancha bridge, in Talavera de la Reina, on Sunday, local city councilor Macarena Muñoz said in a statement.
“According to what we have been able to find out, they had come to Talavera to climb the bridge and create content for social media, which has resulted in this unfortunate and sad outcome,” Muñoz said.
Authorities said the incident occurred early Sunday morning, with Spanish media suggesting the bridge was likely slippery following rain in the region.
The man’s body has been removed from the scene and taken to a nearby funeral home by a coroner, the city council said.
A spokesperson from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said the man’s family has been notified of his death.
“We are supporting the family of a British man who has died in Spain and are in contact with the local authorities,” the office said in a statement.
Standing at 630 feet, the Castilla-La Mancha Bridge is the tallest bridge in Spain and one of the tallest in all of Europe.
Aside from its height, the bridge is famous for its 152-wire rope system that forms its triangular fan-like shape in the Spanish skyline.
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The city official said people are prohibited from climbing the bridge, adding that the city has “reiterated multiple times that it is not allowed under any circumstances.”
The warnings, however, often fall on deaf ears as tourists around the world have suffered similar fatalities over content creation.
In July, travel influencer Aanvi Kamdar died after falling some 350 feet when she lost her footing while filming at a waterfall in India.
A 2023 study of such incidents from the University of New South Wales, Australia, urged officials at tourist hotspots around the world to consider selfie-related injuries and deaths as a “public health problem” that needs to be addressed.
