A YouTube video posted earlier this month showing a man BASE jumping inside the unfinished People’s Salvation Cathedral in Bucharest has gone viral on social media. The video was allegedly recorded last summer, after the man entered the Cathedral without permission, and has prompted church officials to ask for an investigation.

Posted by ExtremeOfficial, a small YouTube channel featuring videos of different people engaging in bungee or BASE jumping, the 37-second short comes with a short description: “60 meters BASE jump inside cathedral.”

No construction crew or Cathedral personnel are visible during the video. According to church officials, the jumper allegedly broke into the cathedral after the workers left.

“The incident is a fraudulent act, committed abusively and without any involvement on the part of those working on this site,” said a church source quoted by Agerpres. “Given the high degree of risk of the incident, the coordinating team of the National Cathedral will request the support of the competent authorities who are able to carry out an appropriate investigation in order to detect this person,” the source added.

The ”BASE” in BASE jumping stands for buildings, antennas, spans (bridges), and earth (cliffs). The sport was invented in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s in California. Those practicing it enjoy the thrill of the added danger, as jumping from fixed places allows for little time to deploy the parachute. Thousands of people have BASE jumped since.

However, BASE jumping is often deadly. Roughly 427 jumpers have died since 1981. 

radu@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Dreamstime.com)