This is the horrifying moment a man dressed as the Russian Father Christmas slipped from a 24-storey building and fell to his death in Chelyabinsk, west Russia.
Astonishing footage shows the professional climber trying to abseil down the building with ropes to greet children below – before the stunt were terribly wrong.
The man dressed as ‘Grandfather Frost’ is seen lit up with a spotlight as he loses his grip and falls some 240ft to his death.
The red-robed Santa was an experienced climber but reports say he mixed up his safety ropes resulting in the horrific fall.
He landed on a snow-covered structure one floor above the ground level which meant the children did not see his body.
Spectators initially thought the fall was part of the act and did not immediately understand the tragedy that had witnessed.
Among those watching were the man’s wife and young child, said reports.
A voice is heard in the crowd asking in disbelief: ‘He didn’t fall….?’.
A man says: ‘Now he’ll come out [to see the children]…he couldn’t fall!’
An eyewitness said: ‘My son didn’t understand anything. Others understood, and they left in hysterics. All the parents, naturally, are in shock.’
Another said: ‘Everyone was having fun, and no-one could even think this would happen.
‘I thought until the last minute that it was some kind of dummy, that it was a prank.
‘The festivities carried on. There was at first no suspicion that this was a tragedy?’
The residential management company that staged the event apologised for the incident and said that the climber was an ‘experienced specialist’.
‘Today’s holiday turned into a monstrous misfortune,’ they said.
‘An industrial climber dressed as Grandfather Frost [Santa Claus] fell while descending from his house and died.’
It was a ‘terrible and completely unpredictable incident’.
The company said: ‘We will do everything in our power to help the police understand the reasons and never allow this to happen again.’
A resident said: ‘My husband and son were there.
‘There were many witnesses there, including children.
‘For now, no-one knows why he fell.
‘Climbers wash the windows in our apartment block – and there has never been a single emergency.’
A local source said: ‘The man was performing tricks on climbing equipment when his wife and child were in the yard of the residential tower.
‘They witnessed his death.’
Russian state investigators arrived at the scene.
They are reportedly checking the circumstances of the tragedy and a possible violation of safety rules.
The dead man’s age was variously reported as 25 and 35.
