Drunk smoker falls off balcony

A sozzled teenager fell off a balcony while having a cigarette, police in Vienna said yesterday (Thurs).

The 19-year-old attended a party in a third-floor flat in Vienna-Meidling on Wednesday night. He landed on a patch of grass in the housing estate’s inner courtyard. The young man was allegedly sitting on the balcony railing smoking a cigarette when he lost his balance due to his inebriation. He suffered a complex fracture to his pelvis.

One day earlier, a German tourist broke his arm when he fell off a balcony in Mieming, Tyrol. The 25-year-old was having a smoke before plunging eight metres to the ground. He managed to call an ambulance himself. Local police said he was lucky not to have been injured worse in the incident.

A builder, 51, is recovering in a clinic after plummeting off a ladder placed on a balcony in Mellau, Vorarlberg, last Friday. A few days earlier, a 43-year-old construction worker had to be hospitalised with injuries described as “serious” by medics after coming off a ladder in Vienna-Landstraße.