People Who Tragically Died While Trying to Take a Selfie

In May 2018, Odisha, India, Prabhu Bhatara tried to take a selfie with an injured bear while stopping at a bathroom on the way home from a wedding reception. Bhatara’s friends reportedly tried to deter him from taking the selfie, but he ignored the warnings and got up close to the animal for a picture.

The bear quickly attacked and – despite attempts to intervene – Bhatara died on the spot. The bear was later treated for its injuries.

In 2016, a man from Concrete, Washington fatally shot himself in the face while trying to take a selfie. The 43-year-old (whose name was not released by the police) apparently thought the gun was unloaded. He and his girlfriend had taken several selfies with the weapon that day, and each time, the man unloaded the gun before the pictures, then reloaded it after (WHY?). 

The Taj Mahal is a place of great beauty, but when a Japanese tourist tried to capture himself in the beauty with the help of a selfie stick, he fell down a series of steps and died of head injuries at the local hospital.

Deleon Smith, a 19 year old father of two from Houston, Texas, accidentally shot himself in the face while posing for a selfie with a gun. His family said that he was due to begin classes at a local community college within the month.

A man being referred to as Mr. Chen, reportedly fell off  a waterfall in Zhejiang, eastern China at the beginning of September. He was found with a phone and a selfie stick at the bottom of a ravine. 

When Polish medical student,  Sylwia Rajchel, visited Seville, Spain she tried to take a selfie on the Puente de Triana bridge just after midnight. She lost her footing and fell to her death. 

In 2014, the 29-year-old pilot of a Cessna 150K in Colorado killed himself, and a passenger while taking selfies as he flew the plane. A GoPro camera mounted to the dash of the plane captured the pilot and his passengers taking photos and texting.

A 14 year old student fell to her death in July 2014 after she lost her balance while trying to take a selfie on the  staircase landing of their school in Pasig City. She fell down multiple flights of stairs, resulting in the severe cranial injuries that lead to her death.

In Mathura, India, three college students attempted to take a “daredevil selfie” of themselves standing on the train tracks as a speeding train approached. Their plan was to jump from the tracks, but their timing was severely off and they ended up being mowed down by a train.

On January 3, 2015, 18-year-old Oscar Reyes attempted to take a photo of himself in his mother’s bathroom in order to follow up on a Spongebob Squarepants selfie he’d taken the day before. Around 2AM when he fell off her door and injured his head. He died from excessive bleeding.

In May 2015 Anna Ursu, a Romanian teenager, went to a train station in Iasi to take a selfie for Facebook. After lying on top of a parked train to take the photo, she kicked her leg up and the overhead cables sent 27,000 volts of electricity through her body, causing her to burst into flames.

A passerby tried to save Anna’s life, but the 18-year-old later died in hospital with burns to 50 percent of her body.  

While attempting to take a selfie with a loaded gun, 21-year old Oscar Otero Aguilar, accidentally shot himself in the head. Before the incident, Otero Aguilar had been drinking with two of his friends in northern Mexico City. 

After flying 8,000 miles to South Africa to visit a girl he had met online, British photographer James Nichols watched as 21-year-old  Cheynee Holloway fell to her death from a cliff as they were setting up to take a photograph. 

At 8:33am on April 26 2014, Courtney Sanford uploaded a selfie of herself to Facebook with the status “The Happy Song makes me so HAPPY.” At 8:34 she crossed a highway median and crashed head-on into a truck.

In May 2014, a 15 year old Indian boy named Edwin was killed after he tried to take a selfie with a quickly approaching train. He was rushed to the hospital, but didn’t survive. 

In Russia, two men died while attempting to take a selfie of themselves holding a hand grenade with the pin pulled out. The only thing that survived the blast was the mobile phone they used to take the photograph.

Seven young men died near Mangrul Lake in Kuhi Taluka, India while trying to take selfies on a boat. According to witnesses, some of the boys began standing on one side of the boat in order to get a better photo. When it ultimately tipped over, all seven men drowned. 

An Indian engineering student named Prakash died after trying to take a selfie on a rock jutting out over the Koli Hills near Namakkal. The rock cracked while he was standing on it, and Prakash fell 60 feet to his death.

Selfie deaths in India occur much more frequently than anywhere else in the world. In 2016, three girls fell off of rocks near the Arabian Sea attempting to snap some selfies. All three girls drowned, as did a man who jumped in trying to save them.

The Mumbai police later designated 15 different spots in the city where selfies would no longer be permitted.

A hiker in Hong Kong fell almost 500 feet to his death after apparently losing his balance taking a selfie on the famous Lion Rock Hill. The mountain has no railings on the edge of the cliff, and the man moved too far out, falling off, and catching a clump of grass to hang on.

Another group of hikers tried to get to him, but the man couldn’t hang on and fell. Authorities pronounced him dead at the scene.