Four women trying to take selfie near waterfall slip and drown, India officials say
.png "Four people drowned in India after trying to take a selfie near a waterfall, according to officials. The above photo is of the Kitwad Falls, where the accident occurred.")
Four women drowned after attempting to take a selfie near a waterfall in India, according to media reports.
The accident occurred at Kitwad Falls, a tourist attraction located about 300 miles south of Mumbai, India’s most populous city, according to The Hindu.
The women, who ranged in age from 17 to 20, were all students at a madrassa, a Muslim college, in Belagivi, a nearby city, the outlet reported.
About 40 women from Belagavi had traveled to the falls for a picnic on Nov. 26, according to the Times of India.
A smaller group of five broke off to take photos and selfies closer to the falls when they slipped and fell into the water, the outlet reported.
One of the five was rescued by “the local youth,” according to the Hindustan Times, but the other four drowned.
They were brought to a hospital where doctors declared them dead, according to the Times of India.
Selfie-related deaths have become a growing problem in recent years, according to one 2018 study, which found that there had been 259 deaths worldwide over a six-year period, far outstripping shark attack deaths.
Approximately half of the total number of reported selfie-related deaths, most of which occur from “drowning, transport and fall,” occurred in India, according to the study.
“[S]elfie culture is more pervasive in India,” University of Sydney anthropologist Jolynna Sinanan told ABC.
This story was originally published November 28, 2022 at 2:15 PM with the headline "Four women trying to take selfie near waterfall slip and drown, India officials say."