Overview
- A rope-jumping session at the Ponte do Esqueleto ended when 21-year-old Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas fell to her death after staff launched her without attaching the safety rope on Saturday.
- A bystander video shows the safety cable left coiled on the platform while workers lifted and pushed the woman off the bridge, and witnesses can be heard shouting about the missing rope.
- Police detained six people at the scene and three men seen in the footage have been placed in custody on homicide-related charges as investigators examine whether the death was reckless or criminal.
- Preliminary police findings show the operator was not authorized to run jumps at the site and charged roughly €30 per jump, raising questions about informal adventure tourism at the disused viaduct.
- Local officials have launched legal steps to hold higher authorities accountable for lax oversight, a move that could prompt stricter controls on extreme-sport activity at the bridge and similar sites.