NIAGARA FALLS—Michael Conner saw her just before she fell.

Dressed in a bright red hoodie and wearing big sunglasses, the woman was talking and taking pictures with a friend. She had climbed up on one of several rock posts, straddling the metal railing that ran between them. Below, water rushed over the brink of Horseshoe Falls.

In that fleeting moment, Conner thought about telling the woman to climb down. The Maryland teen, who’s been coming to Niagara Falls with his family since he was a toddler, had told people to get off the railing before.

But this time, he didn’t. He was with his little brother. The girls seemed to speak no English. And so, he kept walking.

“I knew I should have said something when I saw her over there doing the same thing,” Conner, 19, said late Monday afternoon, pointing to one of several rock posts. “It’s just a tragedy.”

A 19-year-old international student who was attending school in Toronto is still missing and presumed dead after being swept over the falls on Sunday evening.

On Monday, police said they were working with the Japanese consulate to notify her family. No names have been released.

Police said surveillance footage from the nearby visitors centre showed a woman straddling the safety rail while looking out over the falls. The woman, holding an umbrella, was apparently having her picture taken, said Niagara Parks Police Chief Doug Kane.

When she stood up, seemingly to climb back over the rail, she slipped, falling about 25 metres into the current below.

Conner said he realized something was wrong when he heard sirens and saw a group of people peering into the water. The girl’s shell-shocked friend, who had called 911, ran from the visitors centre with a police officer.

Within about 20 minutes, he said, rescue crews were searching the lower Niagara River with flashlights.

Five police and fire departments on both sides of the border spent Sunday evening and Monday morning looking. Later Monday, police said they were scaling back their search.

The incident, which took place during the height of tourist season, was one of three over the course of about 24 hours that reminded visitors how dangerous the falls can be.

During the search Monday, the remains of an unidentified male were found in the lower Niagara River.

And early Sunday morning, a 27-year-old London, Ont., man climbed over the safety wall just north of the Rainbow Bridge and fell into the Niagara River gorge, fracturing his leg. The injured man and a friend who went in after him were pulled out by the fire department.

Kane said climbing over the wall is prohibited by the Niagara Parks Act. “Millions of visitors have viewed the scenic Niagara Falls and the Niagara River gorge while respecting the safety wall without incident,” he said, adding charges under the act are pending in the incident.

Along the falls Monday, thousands of visitors snapped photos from a safe distance. Many climbed up on the stone base of the 1.2 metre high barrier and a few perched on the rock posts with their backs to the falls.

Officers on bicycles patrolled the walkway. Danger signs are placed intermittently along the railing.

Many visitors, like Pamela Aqui, 55, from Mississauga, expressed shock that such a terrible thing could happen at such a beautiful natural wonder. “That’s all we thought about when we were coming here,” she said.

Questions of whether the barrier and signage were adequate drifted into a conversation about balancing the need for safety with allowing visitors an unobstructed view.

“No matter what structure we put up people will still try to get over it,” said Kane, who believes the barrier is adequate.

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Ron Miller, 46, from Harrisburg, Pa., echoed the sentiment. “Do you put cars on rails because people die in car accidents?” he asked.

Alf Kozak, 57, of Toronto said there should be a double row of fence where there are no natural rock ledges.

Kinjal Merai, 22, visiting from the U.S., said the wall should simply be higher, so people can’t climb it.

Conner spent Monday telling people sitting or leaning over the railing to think twice. They obliged once he explained a person had fallen over.

“People are just not thinking about it,” he said of the risks. “They’re having a good time, not a care in the world.”

With files from Zoe McKnight and Amanda Kwan

Deadly Niagara Falls

• Since 1903, only seven deaths involving people going over the Falls have been determined to be accidents. The only person to ever survive an accidental plunge was Roger Woodward, in 1960.

• 16 people have gone over the Falls as daredevils. Eleven of them survived.

Most years, between 20 and 25 cases of suicide happen at the Falls.

• The Falls’ height is 57 metres on the Canadian side and 34 metres on the American side.

• The water speed at the Falls is estimated at 40 km/h.

• 168,000 cubic metres (6 million cubic feet) of water go over the crestline of the falls every minute.

Sources: Niagara Falls Reporter and Niagara Parks

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