A teenager died after falling from the Whispering Gallery inside St. Paul’s Cathedral on Monday, according to authorities.
City of London Police said they were summoned to the cathedral just before 4 pm local time because of “a report of a male in his late teens who had fallen from the gallery within the building.”
Police added, “His death is not being treated as suspicious.”
The Whispering Gallery is 30 meters, or 98 feet, from the Anglican cathedral’s floor, according to the cathedral’s official website. Visitors to the gallery must climb 257 steps.
It gets its name from a “quirk in its construction, which makes a whisper against its walls audible on the opposite side,” the site said.
The cathedral tweeted after 4 p.m. local time on Monday that it was closing for “the rest of the day” and that “Evensong will not take place this evening,” but provided no reason as to why. It reopened Tuesday morning.
A woman died in 2017 after falling from the Whispering Gallery to the floor, CNN affiliate ITV news reported at the time.
“Although robust procedures for emergency situations are in place at St Paul’s, and today’s response bore that out, it does not lessen the shock we feel as a close community, especially for those of us who witnessed and responded to this incident,” St. Paul’s Cathedral said at the time.
The Baroque cathedral was built in the late 17th century and its towering dome has long been a dominant feature of London’s skyline.