The rise of social media and mobile technology has resulted in an intriguing trend known as the selfie. For those unfamiliar, a selfie is a personal photograph typically shared on a social media platform. It seems entirely innocuous and quite fascinating, doesn’t it? However, it was surprising to learn that the American Psychiatric Association has classified the act of taking selfies as a minor mental disorder. But, this information is not the most shocking or negative aspect related to this trend. Selfies, more than being signs of narcissism and vanity, carry risks that can result in deadly outcomes. It may seem unbelievable, but selfies have proven to be hazardous, causing death and serious damage to numerous people involved in taking them. As per the Telegraph, in 2015, selfies were responsible for more fatalities than shark attacks, with the death toll continually rising. The concept of your smartphone becoming a lethal tool might appear implausible, but you may see it differently after discovering these 25 People Who Died While Trying to Take a Selfie, sadly revealing this apparently harmless trend to be potentially dangerous.
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The Taj Mahal is one of the greatest monuments in the world and in September it was all over the news. A Japanese tourist lost his life there while taking a selfie. According to an eyewitness, the victim was on the steps when he slipped and fell. Police reportedly said he lost consciousness immediately after the fall and died of head injuries at the hospital.
Source: en.wikipedia.org (List Of Selfie Related Injuries And Deaths), Image: Wikipedia 24
An Indian engineering student died while taking selfies with friends at Kolli Hills, Namakkal, Tamil Nadu, India. The rock on which he was standing cracked and gave way, plunging him sixty feet to his death.
Source: en.wikipedia.org (List Of Selfie Related Injuries And Deaths), Image: Wikipedia 23
A seventeen-year-old Russian schoolboy fell to his death while trying to take an “extreme selfie” on the roof of a nine-story building. The teenager, identified only as Andrey R., climbed to the top of the building in Vologda, Russia, to take a selfie for his collection of photos in dangerous places. Unfortunately, this time his luck ran out.
Source: en.wikipedia.org (List Of Selfie Related Injuries And Deaths), Image: Wikipedia 22
A nineteen-year-old died in September after trying to take a selfie while holding a loaded pistol to his head. The gun went off accidentally and shot him in the throat. He died at the scene.
Source: en.wikipedia.org (List Of Selfie Related Injuries And Deaths), Image: flickr.com, Photo by Sam Sherratt 21
A fourteen-year-old student named Marie Rocello fell to her death in June 2014 in Manilla, Philippines, after she lost her balance while taking a photo of herself and a friend on the staircase landing of their school. According to doctors, she sustained a sharp blow to the head and broke a rib which pierced a kidney.
Source: en.wikipedia.org (List Of Selfie Related Injuries And Deaths), Image: commons.wikimedia.org 20
A man referred to as Mr. Chen reportedly fell off a waterfall in Zhejiang, eastern China, early September. He was found with a phone and a selfie stick at the bottom of a ravine.
Source: en.wikipedia.org (List Of Selfie Related Injuries And Deaths), Image: commons.wikimedia.org 19
A man trying to take a selfie was gored to death by a bull in front of a horrified crowd. The thirty-two-year-old victim was taking part in the annual bull-running festival in the town of Villaseca de la Sagra, Spain.
Source: en.wikipedia.org (List Of Selfie Related Injuries And Deaths), Image: Wikipedia 18
A Singaporean man died after falling off a cliff and into the sea while attempting to take a selfie on Nusa Lembongan Island, off the southeast coast of Bali. Mohamed Aslam Bin Shahul, twenty-one, died while on vacation with eight of his closest friends.
Source: en.wikipedia.org (List Of Selfie Related Injuries And Deaths), Image: flickr.com, Photo by Jimmy McIntyre 17
A teenager named Anna Ursu died in May while trying to take “the ultimate selfie”. Posing with a friend on top of a train in the northeastern Romanian city of Iași, her leg touched a live wire above, sending an electrical surge of up to 27,000 volts through her body. She died instantly and her friend was hospitalized but survived.
Source: en.wikipedia.org (List Of Selfie Related Injuries And Deaths), Image: Wikipedia 16
In January, two young men blew themselves up in the Ural Mountains in Russia while taking a selfie holding a hand grenade with the pin pulled out. For the record, the cell phone with the selfie survived.
Source: en.wikipedia.org (List Of Selfie Related Injuries And Deaths), Image: Wikipedia 15
Early this year, a South African woman named Cheynne Holloway, twenty-one, became another victim of the selfie trend. While trying to walk to the top of a popular cliff in Northcliff with her friend James Oliver, she slipped and fell to her death.
Source: en.wikipedia.org (List Of Selfie Related Injuries And Deaths), Image: Wikipedia 14
In November 2014 Sylwia Rajchel, twenty-three, was on vacation in Seville, Spain, when she tried to take a photo of herself on the famous Puente de Triana Bridge. Unfortunately, the medical student from Lublin, Poland, slipped while balancing on the ledge of the bridge and fell off.
Source: en.wikipedia.org (List Of Selfie Related Injuries And Deaths), Image: Wikipedia 13
An eighteen-year-old girl named Chezka Agas drowned last year while posing for a group selfie after a friend’s birthday celebration in the Philippines. The young student was overtaken by a strong wave that struck the group as they posed in front of the famous Bangui windmills on a beach in Barangay Masikil and drowned.
Source: en.wikipedia.org (List Of Selfie Related Injuries And Deaths), Image: Wikipedia 12
In August 2014 a drunk man accidentally shot himself in the head while posing for a selfie. Twenty-one-year-old Oscar Otero Aguilar was out with friends in Mexico City when he pointed a loaded pistol at his head for the photo. One friend was detained for questioning and another went on the run after the incident.
Source: en.wikipedia.org (List Of Selfie Related Injuries And Deaths), Image: Wikipedia 11
Mount Merapi National Park management announced in June that it planned to provide a selfie spot for visitors. The head of the park, Suwignyo, said that the plan came after a tragic accident that resulted in the death of climber Eri Yunanto. The unlucky twenty-one-year-old man from Yogyakarta, Indonesia, fell into the crater of Mount Merapi and died while attempting to take a selfie.
Source: en.wikipedia.org (List Of Selfie Related Injuries And Deaths), Image: Wikipedia 10
The pilot of a small plane (Cessna 150K) was taking selfies with his phone on a series of short flights around a Colorado airport in 2014 before he crashed during one of the jaunts, killing himself and a passenger.
Source: en.wikipedia.org (List Of Selfie Related Injuries And Deaths), Image: Wikipedia 9
A twenty-one-year-old Russian girl died while celebrating her college graduation. The young girl was trying to make memories by taking a selfie from the bridge next to the Moscow International Business Center in the Moscow City financial district (one of the most famous landmarks of the Russian capital). Sadly she slipped and fell from the bridge.
Source: en.wikipedia.org (List Of Selfie Related Injuries And Deaths), Image: commons.wikimedia.org 8
In 2014 a popular Puerto Rican musician named Jadiel El Tsunami was killed after he lost control of his motorcycle one Saturday afternoon in Rochester, NY, right after taking a selfie on his motorbike. Ironically, he had previously released a track entitled, “Me Descontrolo” (“I lose control”).
Source: en.wikipedia.org (List Of Selfie Related Injuries And Deaths), Image: commons.wikimedia.org 7
Their desperate attempt to take an “eye-catching picture” and upload it to social networking sites cost three college friends from India their lives earlier this year when they were run over by a speeding train. The accident happened on the railway tracks of Mathura, near Kosikala, India.
Source: en.wikipedia.org (List Of Selfie Related Injuries And Deaths), Image: Wikipedia 6
A woman died in a head-on collision moments after uploading pictures of herself and a “HAPPY” status to her Facebook page. More specifically, at 8:33 a.m. (on Thursday, April 24, 2014) a post appeared on Courtney Sanford’s timeline which read: “The happy song makes me so HAPPY.” At 8:34 a.m. police were called to reports of a crash.
Source: en.wikipedia.org (List Of Selfie Related Injuries And Deaths), Image: pixabay.com 5
A teenage girl fell to her death after trying to take a selfie from a railway bridge in the city of St. Petersburg, Russia. Xenia Ignatyeva went to the bridge in Krasnogvardeysky to take a photo of herself at night with the railway line in the background to create “the most dramatic effect.” She lost her balance and fell to her death.
Source: en.wikipedia.org (List Of Selfie Related Injuries And Deaths), Image: Wikipedia 4
Another teenager lost his life in the Philippines after accidentally shooting himself while taking a selfie in which he was holding a gun to his chin.
Source: en.wikipedia.org (List Of Selfie Related Injuries And Deaths), Image: Wikipedia 3
A twenty-one-year-old from southern Spain was electrocuted after climbing onto the roof of a train to take a selfie with friends.
Source: en.wikipedia.org (List Of Selfie Related Injuries And Deaths), Image: Wikipedia 2
In what is the deadliest selfie incident (so far), seven youths from India, including two brothers, drowned in a lake while attempting to take a selfie. They got on a local boat to take the best possible pictures and as they were clicking away while standing on one side of the boat, it tilted sending them into the lake where they drowned.
Source: en.wikipedia.org (List Of Selfie Related Injuries And Deaths), Image: Wikipedia 1
In what might be the greatest tragedy of all, a Polish couple fell off a cliff in Portugal after crossing a safety barrier to take a selfie. They were survived by their two children who, tragically, were present at the scene and witnessed the death of their parents.
Source: en.wikipedia.org (List Of Selfie Related Injuries And Deaths), Image: commons.wikimedia.org 
