Andrew Raven
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Dec 21/05) - A woman who fell six storeys from a downtown high-rise Sunday morning and landed on a snow-covered path is fortunate to be alive, according to police.

A view from the Fraser Tower apartment building in downtown Yellowknife, where a woman fell six storeys Sunday morning. She is believed to have landed in the circled area. - Dorothy Westerman/NNSL photo

The woman, who police said was in her 20s, suffered "non-life threatening" injuries despite falling 17 metres from the Fraser Tower on 52nd Street.

She landed in an area of hard-packed snow, about one metre from a metal fence and small electrical substation.

"She is lucky to be alive," said RCMP Insp. Roch Fortin.

While forensic specialists combed the apartment and the investigation included members of the G-Division Major Crimes Unit, Fortin said it does not appear as though the woman was pushed. He declined to comment on whether alcohol was a factor in the mishap, which happened around 2:20 a.m.

The woman was still in hospital as of Monday afternoon. Fortin said investigators were waiting to speak with her.

The woman rents an apartment at the Fraser Tower - which doubles as a hotel - said manager Kristen Cook.

She and Bruce Bentley, president of Maclab Hotels, the Edmonton-based company that runs the apartment building, declined to comment further.

The woman is the second to plunge from a Fraser Tower balcony in the last decade. In August 1996, a 19-year-old woman fell five storeys and survived, though she was medevaced to Edmonton.

- With files from Dorothy Westerman