Man Leaps to Death, Killing Girl Below

PARIS — A man jumped more than 250 feet to his death from the top of Notre Dame Cathedral on Monday, killing a teen-age schoolgirl standing below, police said.

Police said the unidentified man, who was about 30 years old, fell on Martine Blot, 14, of Paris, who was visiting the tourist site with a school group.

The student was standing a small distance away from her classmates outside the cathedral admiring its facade when the falling body crushed her, witnesses told police.

Visitors are allowed to climb the steep stairway to the 266-foot-high platform of the south tower--one of the cathedral’s graceful twin towers--for a view of the spire and flying buttresses.