Tourist jumps off Guyana waterfall, presumed dead

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (Reuters) - A woman jumped off a towering waterfall in Guyana on Saturday in an apparent suicide, tourism workers said.

The 23-year-old Guyanese woman broke away from a group and jumped off the 741-foot (225-meter) Kaieteur Falls at the end of an early morning tour, according to tour operator Captain Gerry Gouveia.

She was presumed dead in what would be the first known suicide at the small South American nation's scenic mecca.

"Never in history has this happened. This could seriously affect our business this tourism season," said Frank Singh, another local tour operator.

Locating the body would be tough, Singh said, given that reaching the bottom of the waterfall involves a 24-hour trek.

The Kaieteur Falls is more than four times the height of Niagara Falls at the U.S.-Canada border. According to local legend, the falls are named after Kaie, a chieftain of the Patamuna indigenous people, who paddled his canoe over the edge of the falls to appease the great spirit god.

Angel Falls, in Venezuela's Bolivar State, at 3,212 feet (979 meters), is the world's tallest waterfall.

(Reporting by Neil Marks; writing by Rebekah Kebede; editing by Todd Eastham)