4 Family Members Taking Selfie Slip, Drown at Dam: Reports

January 2024 · 2 minute read

A family outing to a dam in India ended in tragedy on Sunday after four people drowned after trying to take a selfie, according to multiple reports.

Newlywed V. Nivedha, 20, and her husband, 24-year-old G. Perumalsamy, were visiting relatives along with his sister one month after their wedding, The Hindu Times reported.

The two daughters and son of the relative they were visiting reportedly accompanied the trio on a visit to the Pambar dam in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

According to the BBC, the group of six were holding hands and standing in waist-deep water when one slipped, pulling the others in, too.

“They wanted to take a selfie at this spot on the dam and they slipped,” S. Prabhakar, a senior police official from the district of Krishnagiri, told CNN. “The water level increased while they were there.”

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The new bride died along with her family members Sneha, 22, Kanniga, 20, and Santosh, 14, according to CNN.

G. Perumalsamy, survived, and he reportedly managed to save his sister Yuvarani Perumalsamy.

Prabhakar did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

Selfies have become an increasingly dangerous trend, with a 2018 study published in the Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care reporting that more than 250 people died while taking selfies from October 2011 to November 2017.

“The selfie deaths have become a major public health problem,” the study’s lead author, Agam Bansal, told The Washington Post. “If you’re just standing, simply taking it with a celebrity or something, that’s not harmful. But if that selfie is accompanied with risky behavior then that’s what makes the selfies dangerous.”

In May, a 21-year-old Oregon State University student died after she climbed a retaining wall along the Oregon Coast to snap a photo and fell nearly 100 feet.

A man from Macau, China, in his late 50s also fell to his death while trying to take a photo at the Grand Canyon in March.

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