Nkosinathi Emmanuel Mthethwa, the South African ambassador to France, has reportedly been found dead after plunging off a Paris hotel. He was 58. Mthethwa’s body was discovered at the Hyatt Hotel near the Porte Maillot metro station in western Paris on Tuesday, Sept. 30, after jumping 22 floors in an apparent suicide, Reuters and the French newspaper Le Parisien reported, citing the Paris prosecutor’s office. Mthethwa was reported missing by his wife the day before after she received a “worrying message from him in the evening,” the prosecutor’s office told the outlet. Mthethwa’s phone last rang at 3:00 p.m. local time on Monday near the public park Bois de Boulogne in Paris, sparking a search by police and dogs in the area and in the woods in western Paris, per Le Parisien. A spokesperson at South Africa’s foreign affairs department said in a statement to Reuters that they were “aware of unfortunate reports pertaining to Ambassador Nathi Mthethwa” and would be addressing it at a later notice. The Brigade for the Suppression of Crimes Against Persons (BRDP) of the Paris judicial police is investigating the incident and a duty magistrate “is going to the scene,” Le Parisien reported on Tuesday. PEOPLE has reached out to the Hyatt Hotel, South Africa’s foreign affairs department and the prosecutor’s office for comment. Mthethwa’s last public appearance was at the 109th Anniversary of the Battle of Delville Wood in Longueval on Saturday, Sept. 27, the Daily Mail reported.
