Tamil Nadu: School student run over by train while clicking a selfie

The selfie craze among the youth has resulted in the death of one student in Tamil Nadu. A 17-year-old boy was trying to take a selfie on the railway tracks when he was run over by a train. A report in Deccan Chronicle states that the accident occurred on Sunday evening. 

The victim Dena Sukumar, was trying to take a selfie with friends, while walking along the railway track on the Vandalur and Ooorapakkam stretch on Sunday. He was a  plus-2 student of Poonamallee Aringnar Anna government higher secondary school. While his friends managed to jump off the tracks, Dena was killed.

The police have stated that the victim was not able to gauge the speed of the train. 

This is not the first time in India that taking a selfie proved to be fatal. On 9 January, three girls fell into the Arabian Sea while clicking selfies on a rock jutting out of the sea near Bandra Fort in Mumbai. One of the girls and a man who jumped in to save them died in the incident. 

The incident had prompted the Mumbai Police to initiate a process of identifying and marking certain spots in the city as 'no selfie zones' in a bid to discourage people from putting themselves at risk while photographing themselves.

Earlier, two youths had also drowned in the Narmada in Madhya Pradesh. A young man was also reported to have fallen from the Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur recently, while taking a selfie.

Experts say that the addiction to selfies is not healthy as youngsters try to boost their self-esteem by putting up selfies to garner likes on social media.