Egypt's Prosecutor-General Hamada El-Sawi has ordered an investigation into the leaking of surveillance camera footage of a student committing suicide by throwing himself from atop Cairo Tower on Saturday night. 

 

Social media users have been circulating the video of the incident, which shows one of the victim’s friends trying to prevent him from jumping.

 

Nader Mohamed, the 20-year-old engineering student at Helwan University, jumped from a height of 187 m (614 ft) and landed onto the tower’s entrance building.

 

There were no official reports released on the incident, but the friend accompanying Nader and the victim’s recent social media posts revealed that he had been suffering psychological difficulties.

 

The leaking of the video from Cairo tower CCTV has sparked outrage among social media users.

 

The World Health Organization has traditionally ranked Egypt as among the countries with the world’s lowest suicide rates, at less than five suicides per 100,000 people.

 

Suicide cases in Egypt are often reported as accidental deaths by families of the deceased, as suicide is considered a sin by the country’s Muslims and Christians.

 

In latest years, several cases have been reported of people committing suicide by throwing themselves in front of a train, a more common way of suicide in the country.