Paris: a teenager dies after falling from a balcony during a party in Belleville

A teenage girl died during the night from Saturday to Sunday after falling from the balcony of an apartment located in the Belleville district of Paris, Le Figaro learned from a police source confirming information from Le Parisien. An investigation was opened and entrusted to the Minor Protection Brigade (BPM) to determine the precise circumstances of this tragedy which occurred after a birthday party.

According to initial information, the victim participated in a party organized in a duplex occupying the sixth and seventh floors of the building at 82 boulevard de Belleville in the 20th arrondissement. Shortly after 2 a.m., the young girl left the other guests to go alone to the top floor and get some fresh air on the balcony, several of her friends told the police. They say they then heard screams coming from the street. On their way down, they discovered the body of the young girl on the sidewalk, at the foot of the building.

The owner of the apartment, awakened by the screams, immediately went downstairs and himself notified the emergency services at 2:14 a.m., according to police information. Despite the intervention of firefighters, the death of the teenager was noted at 3:07 a.m.

The scientific police as well as the forensic identity technicians were dispatched to the scene at 3:20 a.m., joined by a magistrate from the Paris public prosecutor's office as well as by investigators from the Minor Protection Brigade who were able to question the various witnesses. People present in the street at the time of the fall claimed to have seen three young men hastily leaving the building immediately after the incident, according to information from Le Figaro.

A version contested by the victim's friends who participated in the evening. They maintain that these three boys had already left the apartment before the accident. The investigations should make it possible to retrace the course of the evening and verify the statements of the various witnesses. No hypothesis has been ruled out at this stage. The investigation will have to determine whether it was an accidental fall or whether the intervention of a third party could have played a role.