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Taking a selfie seems like a harmless action that many people do every day. However, it can turn deadly. That’s because people are often putting themselves in harm’s way to snap the perfect photo. A study that was created to analyze selfie-related deaths by country shows that, though most fatalities involve millennials, plenty of older people are victims, too.

Ranked by countries with the least to the most deaths, this gallery includes some of the more recent cases, though more may have occurred. Click through the gallery to see where people have died from taking selfies and how.

▲While posing for a selfie on the rocks in Farol de Santa Marta in April 2017, two tourists were washed away by a wave as their cousin filmed the whole thing. One was rescued, but the other one drowned.

▲A teenager died in Iasi in May 2015 while attempting to take a selfie on the roof of a train. Her leg accidentally touched a live wire above and she was electrocuted to death. One of her friends was hospitalized in the accident.

▲In February 2017, a 21-year-old university student was swept to her death by a dam surge in the Waikato River where she and three friends were taking a selfie. The friends ignored the warning siren signaling that the dam was going to be opened.

▲In June 2017, six children, including a 10-year-old boy, died in different incidents in the span of a week while trying to take “the ultimate selfie” by posing in front of an oncoming train.

▲In separate incidents, a teenage girl and a German tourist fell from a high place while attempting to take selfies.

▲In one incident in January 2016, a 19-year-old student died after falling from the top of a 20-story apartment building in Manila while taking a selfie. Other 3 incidents involve tourists being hit by moving vehicles while taking selfies, drowning, and a self-inflicted gunshot wound caused by posing with a gun.

▲Two separate cases happened in June 2016 and involved tourists falling off a cliff and a waterfall in attempts to take selfies.

▲In March 2016, a 30-year-old hiker died after falling off Lion Rock mountain where he was trying to take a selfie.

▲In March 2016, two men were taking selfies with a gun when one accidentally killed the other. The man plead guilty to manslaughter later that year.

▲In July 2017, two undergraduate students drowned in a pond at the Federal University of Technology, Akure, after falling off a boat in a failed attempt to take a selfie of the group.

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In February 2018, a 22-year-old woman died after being hit by a train where she was standing for a selfie in Bangkok’s Phaya Thai district. A friend of the victim’s was injured in the accident.

▲One case involves two young men who drowned at the seaside town of Arica when they slipped and fell while taking a selfie.

▲A 22-year-old man was fatally hit by a train in the village of Laćarak near the northern Serbian town of Sremska Mitrovica while trying to recreate a scene from the movie ‘Barking at the Stars’ in which the character runs in front of a train. He attempted to take a selfie right before he was hit.

▲In Sri Lanka, taking selfies on or near trains has led to several tragic accidents. Two of the most well-known incidents occurred in June 2017. One involved a 12-year-old boy and his 24-year-old brother, who were struck by a train while taking selfies on a railway track between Bambalapitiya and Colpetty, in Colombo. On the same day, another man lost his life while attempting to take a selfie with his bride on a different section of the line.

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In February 2025, on the Podi Menike rail line, a 53-year-old woman stood by the open door and held onto the rail to take a selfie. While posing, she struck a rock and fell from the train. She sustained serious injuries and was taken to Badulla Teaching Hospital, where she later died. It is believed she may have been trying to take a picture of Sri Lanka's famous Nine Arch Bridge.

▲In January 2015, a 21-year-old woman died during a first date after falling from Northcliff Hill, Johannesburg, where she and her date were getting ready to take a selfie.

▲In September 2017, a 20-year-old man fell to his death from a hotel in Genting Highlands where he was trying to take a selfie.

▲In September 2016, a 66-year-old Italian tourist was killed after being attacked by a wild elephant that he was trying to take a selfie with at Swara Camp in Kulalu ranch.

▲Two Sri Lankan girls drowned while visiting Ain Garziz. One of them slipped while they were taking a selfie and fell into the water, dragging her friend along with her.

▲One man was killed by a bull during the running of the bulls in August 2015 when he attempted to take a selfie with the animal. In another incident from November 2014, a Polish student died after falling from the Triana Bridge in Seville where she was taking a selfie.

▲In two separate cases, two men died after falling while taking selfies and both accidents happened in May 2015. In one case, a Singaporean man fell off a cliff into the sea on Nusa Lembongan Island, off the coast of Bali.

▲In July 2016, two men were hit by a train in the northern province of Hung Yen as they attempted to take a selfie on the tracks.

▲In December 2015, two teenagers were fatally run over by a truck on a road outside Antalya Airport, where the pair and three other friends were laying down to take selfies with landing airplanes in the background.

▲In one incident in March 2017, two teenagers died when the wing of a plane hit them as they were taking a selfie on an airstrip in Chihuahua.

▲In August 2015, a Polish couple died after falling from a cliff in Cabo da Roca where the two had been posing for a selfie with their children.

▲Two separate incidents happened in 2018, and involved young adults falling from a waterfall and a bridge while taking selfies.

▲Two cases took place in 2017 and both incidents involved New Zealanders. In the first, a 41-year-old woman died in September after taking a selfie while riding a bike in London, which caused her to fall and fatally injure herself.

▲Three separate incidents happened in 2016. In one case, a man died while trying to take a selfie with a wild elephant in southern Nepal.

▲The earliest case reported happened in June 2015, and involved a Slovak tourist who died after falling from a rock at the Plitvice Lakes National Park while trying to take a selfie. A 20-year-old Canadian man was seriously injured in a similar accident the following year.

▲In a May 2016 case, a businessman was killed after a walrus dragged him into the pool at Xixiakou Wildlife Park in Rongcheng City after trying to take a selfie with the 1.5-ton animal. The animal’s keeper also died trying to save the visitor.

▲Most selfie-related deaths in the country involved people drowning. In two separate cases in August 2016, a total of six people drowned in the Kunhar river while taking selfies.

▲The earliest recorded case of death by selfie in the US took place in 2011, when three teenage girls were killed while attempting to take a selfie on railroad tracks in Utah. Another case happened in March 2017, when a 14-year-old girl drowned in Bandon, OR, when she fell from a log where she was taking selfies and was trapped underwater.

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India accounts for about half of the selfie-related deaths in the world. Some have been killed while attempting to take photos with wild animals, other have drowned after falling off cliffs, many others have lost their lives to trains, and some have shot themselves while posing with guns.