Japanese Student Swept over Niagara Falls Still Missing

Two days after she fell into the river above Niagara Falls, a 19-year-old Japanese woman is still missing and presumed dead.

According to surveillance footage and eyewitness accounts, the student climbed onto a railing on the Canadian side of the falls near a viewing area known as Table Rock to take pictures at around 8:30 p.m. Sunday night.

The Niagara Parks Police in Ontario stated:

"Two female students from the Toronto area were visiting the falls around Sunday night when one of them climbed onto a railing near the river's edge and sat on a block pillar, with her legs straddling the railing."

As she attempted to climb back over the railing, she slipped and fell about 82 feet (25 meters) into the river above Horseshoe Falls, which straddles the U.S.-Canadian border and is the widest and most viewed of the three cataracts that encompass Niagara Falls.

"The young woman stood up in what appeared to be an attempt to climb back over when she lost her balance and fell," reads a statement from Canadian park police.

The traveling companion, who was nearby when the incident occurred, called 911 and within 20 minutes, rescue crews were searching the lower Niagara River with flashlights for the woman.

"I knew I should have said something when I saw her," Michael Conner, 19, told the Toronto Star, after witnessing the accident. "It's just a tragedy."

Police described the railing as a four-foot-high barrier with rock pillars between the metal railings and danger signs posted all along it.

As an international search party scoured Niagara Falls Gorge for her body on Monday, they came up with the body of an unidentified male instead. The body was not thought to be connected to Sunday's incident and authorities were working with the coroner's office to identify the man.

Late Monday, police said they were scaling back their search.

The body of the Japanese student has yet to be found and police said they were coordinating with the Japanese consulate to inform her family of the tragedy.

Sunday's incident was the third accident at Niagara Falls in the last two years.

Earlier Sunday morning, in an unrelated event, a 27-year-old male from Ontario climbed over the safety wall north of the Rainbow Bridge and fell 20 feet (6 meters) into the Niagara River gorge, fracturing his leg.

Each year between 20 and 25 people commit suicide at the Niagara Falls.

According to records, only one person is reported to have survived an accidental tumble over Niagara Falls - Roger Woodward in 1960.