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© Agence France-PresseA view of the darkened Las Vegas Strip during Earth Hour in 2010. The Earth Hour global movement to help fight climate change is going beyond asking people to turn off their lights to making firm commitments to protect the environment, organisers said Wednesday
A man committed suicide on Friday by leaping off a ledge at the newly-built Cosmopolitan hotel and casino onto the famed Las Vegas Strip, police said.

Witness accounts place the man on a ledge at either the 6th floor or the 14th floor of the Cosmopolitan, the newest hotel and casino to open on the Strip, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police spokesman Marcus Martin said.

The hotel, which opened to much publicity on December 15, has 50 floors and nearly 3,000 rooms.

Marcus said police received calls that a man, who was not identified, was threatening to jump from the Cosmopolitan at about 4:45 a.m., Martin said.

Officers arrived shortly thereafter and tried to negotiate with the man, but he didn't respond and at 6:26 a.m. jumped to his death.

Martin said that suicides on the world-famous Strip are not common.

"The last thing the Strip and Las Vegas need is to be known as a suicide haven," he said.