French investigators are looking into how an Israeli visitor was able to scale the Eiffel Tower and jump off in an apparent suicide attempt.

The 25-year-old man climbed the Paris landmark after it was closed to visitors on Sunday night. He was intercepted by rescue workers on the third floor observatory, but he still jumped and died on impact. The landmark, built in 1889, stands at just over 1,000 feet high.

"It was not an accidental fall," said Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre, the spokeswoman for the Paris prosecutor.

"He turned around and jumped. He did a kind of artistic, swallow dive, projecting himself some three metres off the tower," said the commander general of the Paris fire service.

It is thought to be the first case of suicide at the Eiffel Tower in two years.