A young man has been injured trying to hug the famous Jet d’Eau water fountain in Lake Geneva. As reported by several media, the man entered the security area around the water fountain in Geneva on Monday evening in order to approach the fountain, but was thrown away several times by the water jet and finally fell into the lake.
According to a report in the newspaper “20 Minutes”, the man first tried to put his head on the fountain nozzle – and was then catapulted backwards. However, his failure did not discourage the man, he approached the Jet d’Eau a second time. When he tried to wrap his arms around the jet of water, the water pressure threw him several meters into the air. He landed on the platform around the fountain and eventually fell into the lake.
According to a spokeswoman, eyewitnesses alerted the police. The security forces eventually came to the man’s aid. He was taken to the hospital, but his condition was initially unclear.
The Swiss utility company SIG, owner and operator of the fountain, announced that it intends to file a complaint against the man for intruding into the security area. 500 liters of water shoot out of the Jet d’Eau nozzle at a speed of 200 kilometers per hour to a height of 140 meters and finally end up in Lake Geneva. The fountain has been part of the cityscape of Geneva since 1891, and it was opened in its current form in 1951.
