SOUTH Africa's ambassador to France has died after reportedly plunging from the 22nd floor of a famous Paris hotel.

Nkosinathi “Nathi” Mthethwa, a veteran politician and diplomat, had been missing since Monday, sparking a police search after his wife alerted authorities.

She said she had received a “worrying message” from the 58-year-old that evening, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office.

Mthethwa’s phone was last traced near the Bois de Boulogne in western Paris around 3pm on Monday.

Fearing a possible suicide, officers and dog teams scoured a nearby wooded area.

But by lunchtime Tuesday, his body was discovered “right above the Hyatt Hotel”, prosecutors confirmed.

Paris cops have since opened an investigation into his death, with a duty magistrate also going to the scene.

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