Coq d’Argent death fall witnesses speak of horror: 'He landed and then everything fell silent'

 
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Rob Parsons|Sara Smyth18 October 2012

CITY workers spoke of their horror today at seeing a businessman plunge 80ft to his death from a spot just yards from the rooftop Coq d’Argent restaurant.

The married 46-year-old, who was wearing a suit, plunged into a busy food court from a walkway to the restaurant at No 1 The Poultry, next to Bank Tube station.

The suicide is the fourth to take place at the spot in the last five years and the second in a matter of weeks.

The man is believed to have taken a lift to the restaurant, whose roof terrace is closed for the winter, and walked along a walkway over the atrium.

Christina Neumann, was queuing for food when she heard the man falling. She said: “It’s the most awful thing I have ever witnessed in my life”.

She said: “The noise of the man falling was horrendous. At first I thought someone had been shot but then I realised he had fallen off the balcony.

“We all froze. The whole room went quiet for a while with shock. Seeing him lie there with his shoes off and legs broken made my heart jump and I got the shakes. I ended up running out of the building as quickly as I could.”

The popular French restaurant, which featured in a James Bond-themed sequence at the Opening Ceremony for the Olympics this summer, is owned by Sir Terence Conran.

Des Gunewardena, chairman of D&D London, which runs the restaurant, said the death at 12.41pm yesterday was “another tragic incident”.

He said: “We are investigating it and examining the CCTV but it looks to us at the moment that the person didn’t enter the restaurant.”

Another eyewitness, who didn’t want to be named, said: “I was sitting in the courtyard area on the basement floor having a coffee with my back to where the man landed.

“There was a huge thump and band and because it’s an enclosed area, it reverberated all around. Everyone started running into Starbucks.

“He was wearing a dark top coat, grey trousers and black shoes, one of his shoes fell off. Someone felt his neck for a pulse.”

The incident comes almost a month to the day after father-of-one Kevan Ward, 46, fell 350 ft to his death outside the Willis Building in the City.

Mr Ward was a popular head of security at the tower and later his family said they were “at a loss” to say why he acted.

His death took place a week after businesswoman Rema Beauty Begum died when she fell from the top of the nearby Coq D’Argent restaurant.

Onlookers described how the 29-year-old took a sip of wine then fell eight–stories landing outside Bank underground station.

Her death was the third time in five years that someone has fallen to their death from the restaurant, which was founded by Sir Terence Conran.

In 2007 Richard Ford, 33, threw himself from the top and in 2009 Anjool Malde, 24, jumped to his death after he was suspended from Deutsche Bank over a prank.

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