Vile website slammed for world ‘balcony death leader board’ | World | News
An “utterly vile” website that ranks deaths of tourists falling from balconies has been slammed after it celebrated the UK taking the “top spot” following the death of a Scottish student.
Emma Ramsay, from Hamilton, was enjoying a holiday with friends on the island when she fell from a balcony at the four-star Hotel Vibra District in Ibiza last week.
Paramedics were called to the seafront hotel shortly after 3am but pronounced the 19-year-old dead at the scene.
Later that day, a group calling itself the Balearics Federation of Balconing, appeared to mock Ramsay’s fall by saying: “Everyone trusted that the kings of this sport would once again be leaders adding that the “British never disappoint”.
The group awards points to nations for balcony-linked deaths and tourists who have died on the Balearics.
Each country is awarded two points for every person killed and one point when they are left injured. The UK appeared top of the table – with 197 points given for 42 deaths and 113 injuries since 1999 followed by Germany and Spain.
And now a Scottish politician has called for the organisation which has 55,000 followers to be shut down.
Christina McKelvie, the MSP for Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse said: “This is utterly vile and my heart goes out to the loved ones of anyone who has been targeted by this organisation.”
She added: “It is reprehensible that anyone would seek to exploit and use tragic deaths in such a cruel manner.
“The sooner the organisation is shut down, the better, and social media organisations should take any action they can to remove such deplorable content from their sites.”
McKelvie was appointed as Scotland’s minister for drugs and alcohol policy earlier this year.
The “federation”, which describes itself online as “Darwinistically tourist-phobic”, appears to have been keeping records of falls among international and domestic tourists to the Balearic islands since 2000.
The group did not reply to a request for comment from Express.co.uk.
However, Balearics Federation of Balconing did post a response to Diario De Ibiza on X (formely Twitter) regarding McKelvie’s calls for it to be shut down. The group insisted that the problem was not with its rankings, but rather the region’s model of “mass tourism” and the “consequences” that stemmed from this model.
