Veronika Kobzova, 28, from Ukraine, was on holiday in Phuket, Thailand, when she fell from a rooftop swimming pool at a resort complex and died after suffering “head and chin” injuries
A circus acrobat from Ukraine fell 50ft to her death after losing her balance while walking along the edge of a rooftop swimming pool during a holiday in Thailand, it has been revealed.
28-year-old Veronika Kobzova had been drinking beer at a resort complex on the popular tourist island Phuket in Thailand when the tragedy happened. She is reported to have decided to stand up and walk along the edge of a pool at the top of the building when she fell. The holidaying acrobat “made a misstep” which led to her falling into an alley below, according to witnesses.
She was pronounced dead less than an hour after her 3:30am fall which caused serious “head and chin” injuries. Veronika was a member of a famous Ukrainian circus family.
Her uncle Mykola Kobzov, head of Circus Kobzov, told of the “terrible loss” and that his family is in “mourning”. He said: “In a tragic accident, my niece Veronika Kobzova has passed away.
“She fell from a height of 15 metres. Young, beautiful, successful — and now such a terrible loss.
“Veronika, we will always remember you. I love you. Our whole family is in mourning.” Pictures show the rooftop pool apparently without barriers.
Friends rushed to her after the fall, but her injuries were fatal. Thai police are reportedly investigating her death but foul play is not suspected.
A Thai report said: “The blissful rooftop ambiance and the allure of a poolside walk culminated in an unintended peril. As her friends watched, her celebration turned to calamity when she misstepped at the edge of the rooftop swimming pool, plunging from the third floor into a narrow alley below.”
Video shows her familiar with high acts from her career as an acrobat. The dead woman was originally from Nikopol, in Ukraine ’s Dnipropetrovsk region.
She had worked in the circus from the age of 12, and later starred in the prestigious Cirque du Soleil and the German Roncalli Circus. Later she performed in Asia, especially China, and recently had been based in Thailand, said reports.
It comes after last month a young gymnast horrifically plunged to her death after plummeting from a so-called “Wheel of Death” during rehearsals for her first show.
Victoria Balandina had just started with the circus and was performing on a giant rotating contraption, in the city of Magnitogorsk, a major industrial centre in southern Russia, on Saturday. The young woman reportedly lost her balance and fell over five metres to the ground in a horror accident.
Emergency workers rushed to the training site in a desperate attempt to save the 22-year-old’s life but she died in an ambulance a short while after her horror fall on May 17.
A shocking video caught the moment the woman suffered the fatal tumble as she was attempting to do somersaults as the huge wheel span. The footage caught Victoria as she slipped and landed head-first in the circus arena.