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MILAN: Extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner, the first skydiver to fall faster than the speed of sound during a 39 kilometer leap through the stratosphere more than a decade ago, died in a crash Thursday along the eastern coast of Italy. He was 56.
Italian firefighters who responded said a paraglider crashed into the side of a swimming pool in the city of Porto Sant Elpidio.
The city’s mayor confirmed Baumgartner’s death in a social media post.
“Our community is deeply affected by the tragic disappearance of Felix Baumgartner, a figure of global prominence, a symbol of courage and passion for extreme flight,” Mayor Massimiliano Ciarpella said.
Baumgartner, known as “Fearless Felix,” stunned the world in 2012 when he became the first human to break the sound barrier with only his body. He wore a pressurized suit and jumped from a capsule hoisted more than 24 miles (39 kilometers) above Earth by a giant helium balloon over New Mexico.
The Austrian, who was part of the Red Bull Stratos team, topped out at 843.6 mph — the equivalent of 1.25 times the speed of sound — during a nine-minute descent. At one point, he went into a potentially dangerous flat spin while still supersonic, spinning for 13 seconds, his crew later said.
“When I was standing there on top of the world, you become so humble, you do not think about of breaking records anymore, you do not think of about gaining scientific data. The only thing you want is to come back alive,” he said after landing in the eastern New Mexico desert.
The altitude he jumped from also was the highest-ever for a skydiver, shattering the previous record set in 1960 by Joe Kittinger, who served as an adviser to Baumgartner during his feat.
Baumgartner’s altitude record stood for two years until Google executive Alan Eustace set new marks for the highest free-fall jump and greatest free-fall distance​.
In 2012, millions watched YouTube’s livestream as Baumgartner coolly flashed a thumbs-up when he came out of the capsule high above Earth and then activated his parachute as he neared the ground, lifting his arms in victory after he landed.
Baumgartner, a former Austrian military parachutist, made thousands of jumps from planes, bridges, skyscrapers and famed landmarks, including the Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil.
In 2003, he flew across the English Channel in a carbon fiber wing after being dropped from a plane.
In recent years, he performed with The Flying Bulls as a helicopter stunt pilot in shows across Europe.
Baumgartner said after his record-breaking jump in 2012 that traveling faster than sound is “hard to describe because you don’t feel it.”
“Sometimes we have to get really high to see how small we are,” he said.

NIAMEY, Niger: An Indian national was killed and another abducted in what India’s embassy termed a “terrorist” attack in southwestern Niger, while a third is listed as missing, it said in a statement.

Local sources said unidentified armed attackers ambushed a Nigerien army unit providing security at a construction site for an electrical line in the Dosso region, around 100 kilometers (63 miles) from the capital Niamey.

Urging Indian nationals in Niger to be “vigilant,” India’s embassy in Niamey said it was in contact with the employer and families of the victims as well as the Nigerian government to facilitate repatriation of the dead man’s remains.

It said it was also working to secure the release of the person abducted in the attack, which took place Tuesday near the Nigerian border.

Local sources and social media posts suggested at least one Nigerien soldier was killed in the attack, which authorities had not yet commented on Friday.

Niger, under military rule following a 2023 coup, has faced around a decade of violence perpetrated by jihadists affiliated to Al-Qaeda and the Daesh group.

The Dosso region borders both Nigeria and Benin, where attacks regularly target civilians, the army and also a giant oil pipeline transporting crude from Niger to Benin.

The authorities generally blame such attacks on “terrorists” or “bandits.”

Dosso borders the western town of Tillaberi near the borders with Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, which has become a stronghold for militant groups.

According to official Indian sources, five Indian technicians were kidnapped in an April 25 attack just north of the nearby town of Sakoira.

Twelve Nigerien soldiers were killed in that attack.

Earlier this month, three Indian nationals working in Mali were kidnapped from a cement factory in the west of the country.