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Woman in critical after 23-story plunge

Hospital officials say a 32-year-old woman who threw herself off the 23rd story of a Buenos Aires hotel and survived after landing on a taxi is still in critical condition.
In this cell phone photo provided by Infobae.com received via Twitter from @denisitabaires, a woman lies over a taxi after falling from the 23 floor of a hotel in downtown Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Monday. The seriously injured woman was taken to a hospital while the taxi driver managed to get out of the car before the impact.
In this cell phone photo provided by Infobae.com received via Twitter from @denisitabaires, a woman lies over a taxi after falling from the 23 floor of a hotel in downtown Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Monday. The seriously injured woman was taken to a hospital while the taxi driver managed to get out of the car before the impact.AP
/ Source: The Associated Press

A woman who plunged from the 23rd story of a Buenos Aires hotel and survived after landing on a taxi is still in critical condition, hospital officials said Tuesday.

They released just her first name, Daniella, and said she was 32 years old. It wasn't known why she jumped or fell from the building.

The woman landed in a sitting position on the roof of a taxi whose driver got out just before the impact deeply dented his roof and shattered the windshield.

The woman was rushed to the nearby Hospital Argerich with injuries that included internal bleeding and broken hips and ribs, Alberto Crescenti, director of Argentina's Emergency Medical System, told the government news agency Telam. He estimated that she fell nearly 330 feet.

The taxi driver, Miguel Cajal, said he saw a policeman looking up and that prompted him to get out just before the driver's side of the car was smashed by the woman's body.

"If I hadn't got out, I'd be dead," Cajal, 39, told local television, which showed pictures of his mangled vehicle, its windshield and roof crushed by the impact of the woman's fall.

Another taxi driver, Juan Carlos Candame, told Associated Press Television News that he saw the woman climb over a barrier and jump into the void.

The woman plunged from the top of the Hotel Crown Plaza Panamericano, where a restaurant overlooks the landmark Obelisk in downtown Buenos Aires.