Neighbours reported hearing victim Claudia Chessa from Sardinia, Italy, rowing violently with her boyfriend before she plunged through a restaurant awning and died
An 18-year-old holidaymaker survived after plunging more than 70ft from a hotel balcony when a restaurant awning broke her fall.
Victim Claudia Chessa from Sardinia, Italy, had moments earlier been rowing violently with her boyfriend when, police believe, he shoved her. The couple had been holidaying at the hotel in Valletta, Malta, when she tumbled off the balcony on January 22nd.
After falling, the 18-year-old managed to walk a few feet to seek help before collapsing to the ground. Paramedics rushed her to Mater Dei hospital where she is awaiting surgery for severe back injuries. She remains in serious condition but her life is out of danger.
Witnesses reported hearing the couple argue right before Claudia’s fall. Her 27-year-old boyfriend, Alessio Lupo, has been quizzed over suspected domestic violence but allowed to leave Malta on bail. Magistrate Jean Paul Grech is leading the investigation.
It comes after a woman whose best friend died after plunging from a seventh floor balcony in Magaluf issued a stark warning to young Brits travelling abroad for the first time.
Natalie Cormack, from North Ayrshire, Scotland, had been working on the Spanish holiday Island in April 2018 when she suffered the fatal fall. The 19-year-old had attempted to climb from her friend’s seventh floor apartment to her own flat after losing her keys – but lost her grip and plummeted to the ground, leaving her with catastrophic injuries. Despite the best efforts of emergency services, the teenager could not be saved.
Since the tragedy, Natalie’s best pal Erin Montgomery launched a campaign called ‘Don’t leave a friend behind’ in a bid to raise awareness about balcony falls and young people drinking too much alcohol on holiday. But seven years on, Erin, 25, fears the issue is still not being taken seriously enough after 19-year-old law student Emma Ramsay, also from Scotland, died when she fell from her balcony in Ibiza last August.
“Emma’s recent death made me worry that the new generation of young people going on holiday this summer for the very first time won’t have heard about Natalie or our campaign to highlight the risks involved”, Erin told the Daily Record. “Young people think they are invincible but I want to get this message out there to as many of them as possible this year and try to stop someone else being killed.”
“Go and have fun on holiday, but beware of the risks of alcohol and balconies and never leave any of your friends alone at night. It just takes one mistake and people are losing a loved one and many lives are changed forever. When I hear of incidents like Emma in Ibiza last year it just re-traumatises me and hits home that we need to keep pushing this campaign because it can’t be reaching enough people.”
Erin explained the ‘Don’t leave a friend behind’ campaign was formed after a group of Natalie’s friends came together to raise money to bring her body home from Spain. But when another two young men died in similar falls in the same complex that summer, the group doubled down on raising awareness to prevent further tragedies from happening.
