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Wednesday March 14 10:52 AM ET Man Survives Fall But Lands Beside Corpse LONDON (Reuters) - A British man who jumped off a cliff survived a fall of nearly 400 feet -- but landed on a ledge next to a badly decomposed body. Rescuers said the 22-year-old man had suffered serious and extensive injuries and it was miraculous that he was still alive after falling such a distance. ``To live at all is a miracle but to land so close to a dead body is just amazing,'' a coastguard spokesman told Reuters. The drama began when police and coastguards were called to Shakespeare Cliff at Dover on England's southeast coast on Tuesday night when the man was spotted behaving erratically. Despite their attempts to calm him he leapt over the cliff edge. ``The man survived the plunge but landed close to another body. It was very much decomposed,'' the spokesman said. The grisly find was made by a paramedic who went to the aid of the man as he lay injured on the ledge about 30 feet from the bottom of the white chalky cliff. The man was taken to hospital with multiple injuries but his condition was stable, officials said. A spokesman for Dover police said officers did not know the identity of the dead man.


source: Reuters (2001) tags: Death, Chance, Luck

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