LUCKNOW: In a tragic incident, a French tourist fell to her death in Fatehpur Sikri when the railing against which she was standing and trying to click a photo along with her friends came down from a height of around 9 ft on Thursday.
After falling down on the stone floor, the tourist, named Esma, 61, was unconscious and remained untreated for over a hour as there was no ambulance in the vicinity to ferry her to the hospital. Her group members kept on asking for medical help and tried to revive her but to no avail.
According to sources, the ambulance took about one hour to reach the monument. The critically injured tourist was then taken to SN Medical College where the doctors, finding her very critical, referred her to a private hospital -- Rainbow. At Rainbow hospital, the doctors declared her dead upon arrival. The incident took place around 2 pm on Thursday afternoon.
As per the sources, a group of 20 French tourists was visiting Fatehpur Sikri. They were clicking pictures at different locations of the fort. Esma was taking picture along with her five friends near the Diwan-e-Khas standing against a wooden railing which came down crashing. While the others managed to save themselves, Esma fell down and lost consciousness,” said her husband while talking to media persons at the hospital.
On learning about the tragedy, Agra DM Bhanu Goswami along with Deputy Commissioner of Police and Agra CMO rushed to the hospital. The DM later ordered a magisterial probe, to be conducted by the ADM Protocol, into the incident. “The probe will also cover the undue delay in the arrival of the ambulance and the strictest action will be taken against those who will be found guilty of slackness in the matter,” said the DM.
The railing which was installed by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) prior to the pandemic had reportedly been lying loose for quite some time. Fathepur Sikri is an ASI protected monument attracting a huge number of tourists.
ASI's superintending archaeologist Raj Kumar Patel said that the group of French tourists had come from Udaipur in Rajasthan to Fatehpur Sikri.
"An ASI official was rushed to the hospital to coordinate with the group of tourists but by then the French lady had succumbed to her injury," said Patel. Later, the body was sent for autopsy and other modalities were being completed by the Agra adminisration.