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Gymnast Survives 6-Story Fall

An Italian gymnast regained consciousness Tuesday after narrowly surviving a fall out of a sixth-floor window in northern Moscow — just as another woman lost her life in a similar incident.

"She is conscious, but still in serious condition," a hospital source told RIA-Novosti about the gymnast on Tuesday, without giving a reason for the fall.

Violetta Ballirano, 15, who is half-Russian and half-Italian, was hospitalized Saturday with a head injury and numerous fractures.

Lifenews.ru published footage from a surveillance camera showing Ballirano entering an apartment building on Novopeschanaya Ulitsa and falling onto a nearby parked car three minutes later.

Her mother claimed that the girl, before going into a coma, said she was pushed out of the window but did not say by whom, Lifenews.ru reported. Investigators, however, said Ballirano might not have been in any condition to speak, Moskovsky Komsomolets reported.

Ballirano, who has Russian citizenship but performs for the Italian team, had a fight with her boyfriend that day, news reports said.

Meanwhile, an unidentified black woman fell out of a 16th-floor window of an apartment building near the Tyoply Stan metro station in southwestern Moscow late Monday, Interfax reported Tuesday.

The woman, who appeared to be about 20, was dressed only in underwear, the report said. Police did not say what prompted the fall.

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