Officials: Man who fell to death in Romania was British diplomat

[News_Editor]

BAIA MARE, ROMANIA (BNO NEWS) -- A British man who fell from the seventh floor of a hotel in northwestern Romania was a diplomat attached to the British embassy in Bucharest, officials confirmed on Friday. Local police said a suicide note was found in the man's hotel room.

"I am deeply saddened to confirm the tragic death of a member of our diplomatic staff in Romania. We ask for the privacy of the family and our Embassy team in Bucharest be respected at this difficult time," said Simon Fraser, the permanent under secretary of Britain's Foreign Office.

The incident happened at around noon on Thursday when a 46-year-old man from England fell from the seventh floor of Hotel Mara in Baia Mare, the capital of MaramureÈ county in northwest Romania. A suicide note to the man's family was found in his hotel room, police spokesperson Dumitrita Rus said on Thursday.

In a letter to British Ambassador Martin Harris on Friday, Romanian Foreign Minister Titus CorlÄÈean expressed his government's "sympathy" and "sincere condolences" over the diplomat's death. "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs expresses its readiness to provide its full support to the Embassy of the United Kingdom in this case," the ministry said in a statement.

On Thursday, journalist Monica Matei of Romanian news channel Antena 3 said the victim had worked as a British diplomat since 2001 and served as an attaché of the British embassy in Bucharest since January 2010. He had recently become depressed because he had no family, the channel said, citing police sources.

"Police have begun an investigation into the circumstances in which the accident occurred," Rus said on Thursday. Regional ambulance director Zoltan Balko told Romanian media company Mediafax that paramedics found the man suffering from severe head trauma with numerous injuries, and efforts to revive him were unsuccessful.

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