Russian woman’s birthday turns fatal during selfie attempt on jumping tower

A mother fell 290ft to her death in front of her son while trying to take a selfie on a tower, moments after a successful bungee jump on her 45th birthday.

Elizaveta ’Liza’ Gushchina, an extreme sports fanatic, ’slipped and fell’ 290ft to her death from the same tower where she made a spectacular high-adrenaline rope jump just minutes earlier as she celebrated her birthday.

Her distraught son Nikita, 23, was with her at the abandoned boiler tower - now used for daredevil rope jumps - when she fell in Pavlovsk, near the Russian city of St Petersburg.

’Without safety ropes, she climbed back up, slipped and fell down’ - a height of 290ft.

The mother-of-two had shared footage of her successful leap, which showed her swinging from an ’elastic rope’ just above the ground.

Before she is helped off the platform, the woman laughs and says ’Let’s go!’.

She is heard screaming with joy as she goes down.

Gushchina was uninjured from her birthday leap but soon afterwards climbed back up the tower to ’take a selfie as a keepsake’, before she fell, witnesses said.

Rope-jumping company 23block, which operates the popular facility, said: ’In tragic circumstances, experienced jumper and mother-of-two children Liza has passed away.

’Elizaveta Gushchina, along with her son Nikita, was a member of our sports team.

’Now the whole team is mourning her loss.

’This is a very big tragedy for us.’

The extreme sports facility is for ’people who cannot imagine their life without adrenaline, rope jumping, flights, active recreation, free fall, and they want to share these emotions with you’, according to its publicity material.

The state prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation into the woman’s death, according to reports.

’They will ascertain whether the organizers of the attraction complied with the law when providing services.’