First-time parachutist hits power lines

QUEBEC CITY, July 2 (UPI) -- A Canadian man making his first parachute jump was killed when he drifted onto major power lines south of Quebec City, police said.

The 30-year-old's identity wasn't released as police were still trying to contact his family about the accident on Tuesday, the National Post reported.

The man had taken courses at the Atmosphere jump club Sunday, but bad weather that day and Monday moved his jump to Tuesday in Levis, police spokeswoman Marie-Claude Fortin said.

She said there was no evidence of negligence on the part of the club, who had a jump instructor aboard the aircraft with the man and another instructor on the ground.

"For a reason yet to be determined, the young man came in contact with electrical wires of 250,000 volts," Fortin said.

Rescue crews had to ask the Hydro-Quebec power utility to turn the current off so they could bring the man down, police said.

Despite resuscitation attempts, the man was pronounced dead at a hospital, the report said.