According to firefighters, the 15-year-old girl fell through the roof of the former Akers factory. His 17-year-old friend who accompanied him was seriously injured.
Urbex, an English acronym for urban exploration, can lead to tragedies. This Saturday, April 27, a 15-year-old girl died in Unieux, in the Loire, while visiting the disused Akers factory. According to the first elements, revealed by the firefighters, the victim would have fallen through the roof. Another young woman who accompanied him, aged 17, was seriously injured and taken to hospital. Two other people accompanied the teenagers, they were taken care of by the emergency services because they were very shocked.
A site undergoing decontamination
The factory formerly belonged to the Swedish steel group Akers. Installed on a 6.5 hectare site, it employed some 120 employees until 2010. Since then, the municipality has recovered ownership of the site and, according to the declarations of PCF mayor Christophe Faverjon to our colleagues from 20 minutes, this industrial wasteland is being decontaminated “before being demolished”. Particularly for security reasons. The factory attracts squatters, graffiti artists, urbex practitioners and people who use it as illegal dumping. Already in 2017, a 15-year-old teenager, who came to photograph the graffiti, had already fallen through the roof and was seriously injured.
Another drama in Lyon a few days earlier
This drama reminds us that Urbex is a very dangerous practice. A few days earlier, in Lyon, a 17-year-old young man was found dead in the early morning at the Grand Hôtel-Dieu. According to our colleagues from Progress, this fan of urban exploration and parkour wanted to photograph the sunrise from the roof of the building.