Rescue workers took the man from the canal (Picture: CEN)

A British tourist has died after he fell into a canal in Amsterdam while urinating.

Witnesses described how the man walked to the side of a canal in the city centre in the middle of the night and start to pee into the water.

He is said to have lost his balance, falling into the water and drowning.

One passerby tried to save him but could not pull him to dry land.


Emergency services were called, as well as several fire brigade units and two ambulances. A special diving team eventually managed to pull the man out of the water.

He fell in while urinating (Picture: CEN)

Medics reportedly managed to resuscitate him briefly, but it was later confirmed that he had died a short time after arrival in hospital.



A police spokesman confirmed the drowned man was a 21-year-old British tourist who was not named due to local privacy laws.

The Amsterdam Public Health Service (GGD) has warned about the danger of urinating in the city’s canals while intoxicated.

According to the GGD, some 200 people drown every year in the Netherlands, with about 20 of these cases happening in Amsterdam.

The central canal where the man drowned (Picture: CEN/Google Maps)

They say the bulk of these deaths are intoxicated men who fall into the water in circumstances similar to this.

GGD forensic doctor Guido Reijnen said this is mostly because drunk people have more difficulties balancing themselves at the edge of the canal and once they have fallen in, they have more difficulties getting out of the water again.

A second, often overlooked cause, is called micturition syncope, the name given to the human phenomenon of fainting shortly after or during urination.

Reijnen explained that due to alcohol consumption and peeing while standing, the amount of blood going to the brain decreases as blood vessels expand.

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