A 21-year-old student who plunged 40 meters from a bridge during a horrific bungee jump failure in Brazil was still alive when rescuers reached her, it has been revealed.
Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas was killed after being thrown without a rope from the Ponte do Esqueleto, or "Skeleton Bridge", in Limeria, Sao Paulo State, on Saturday as shocked onlookers watched on.
Shocking Footage Shows Instructors Forgetting Rope
Shocking footage of the incident shared on social media shows three male instructors carrying Freitas to the edge of a concrete block, apparently forgetting to attach a rope to her feet which can be seen coiled on the ground, before hurling her off the bridge.
While some witnesses can be heard in the video saying "the rope, people, the rope", no one attempts to stop the jump from going ahead.
Off-Duty Nurse Rushes to Help
Off-duty nurse Rayza Dias was at the scene and scrambled down the cliff to reach Freitas, who she said was still alive immediately after the fall.
"I scraped my whole hand because there's a steep slope down there and only one rope for us to climb down," Dias told local Brazilian TV show Domingo Espetacular. "It was all covered in mud. I kept going down, down, we walked all the way."
Dias said when she reached Freitas at the bottom of the cliff she attempted to comfort her. "I even talked to her. I have a habit of joking and saying, 'Nobody dies on my shift'," she said. "And I told her, 'Duda (Eduarda), nobody dies on my shift'. Even though I wasn't on my shift there."
However, by the time paramedics arrived, Freitas could not be saved and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Three Men Arrested on Homicide Charges
On Sunday, police arrested three men as investigations into the tragedy continue. Vitor de Freitas Gonçalves, 27, Luis Felipe Feliciano Egoroff, 32, and Maicon Fernandes Cintra, 42, are now facing charges of homicide with implied malice, according to Brazilian news outlet G1.
