Another life lost to the dangerous selfie craze.
A 12 year-old Russian girl has died after falling from a 17th floor balcony of her apartment building while attempting to take a selfie.
The girl, known as Oksana B, allegedly took a selfie on the railing of the balcony and sent it to one of her friends on Russian social media site Vkontakte shortly before falling to her death.
Moments before the incident, Oksana B had told her mother she was going for a walk. Instead, she went up to the 17th floor to take the selfie, which has not been released by police.
When Oksana didn’t reply to her friend, who had noticed the dangerous nature of the photo and tried to call her, she sent it to the school girl’s mother, but by then, passersby had already found the girl on the street below her balcony and alerted police.
This isn’t the first selfie-related death in Russia, earlier this year, 17 year-old Andry Retrovesky fell to his death after posing for a selfie on the roof of a nine-story building.
Oksana’s uncle took to social media this week to express his sadness over the accident.
‘She was such a friendly girl. She was a good pupil, she had no problems at school,’ he posted.
‘She had so much to live for and now she has lost her life to the craze of looking to do extreme selfies for social media. There can be no other reason why she climbed over the damned handrail.’
The Russian government has since release a campaign urging people not to take selfies in dangerous places, but it seems taking risky selfies is still a popular pastime for many.
According to a study by Priceonomics, 49 people have died taking selfies since 2014. It’s a price way too high to pay for the perfect photo.
Comment: Do you think young people need to be educated about the dangers of taking extreme selfies?
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