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A 19-year-old Japanese student is presumed dead after she lost her balance Sunday and fell into the churning waters of Niagara Falls, police said Tuesday.

The student, whose name was being withheld pending notification of her family, was straddling the railing with an umbrella in her hand and fell above the brink of the Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side of Niagara, according to a news release from the Niagara Parks Police.

"This is the first accident of its kind I can recall in my 35 years of policing," Niagara Parks Police Chief Doug Kane said Tuesday.