NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. — A man survived a plunge of at least 180 feet over Niagara Falls in an apparent suicide attempt Monday — only the third person known to have lived after going over the falls without a safety device.

Police said witnesses reported seeing the man climb over a railing 20 to 30 feet out over Horseshoe Falls at 10:20 a.m. and "deliberately jump" into the Niagara River. Seriously injured, he surfaced in the lower Niagara River basin near the Journey Behind the Falls observation platform and made it to shore on his own.

"He waded ashore," said Platoon Chief Dan Orescanin of the Niagara Falls, Ontario, Fire Department. "He must have gotten swept into an eddy, floated over there and was able to get out on his own. That's another stroke of luck. If he was in the main current, he would have been swept down river."

Read on...