A teenage boy from India has died after accidentally shooting himself in the head while taking a selfie.
15-year-old Ramandeep Singh was reportedly posing with his dad’s .32 caliber pistol on Friday evening when he accidentally pulled the trigger. Despite undergoing surgery, CNN reports that Singh eventually died of his injuries on Sunday afternoon.
According to Pathankot’s deputy police superintendent Manoj Kumar, the fatal mistake was due to the gun’s safety catch not being on. “The boy's father and family said that he was trying to take a selfie with his gun,” Kumar stated after the incident. “We think that part of the blame obviously goes to the father for not keeping his loaded gun under lock and key at their home.”
While this may seem like a shocking one-off, it’s actually not the first time it’s happened. Selfies are swiftly becoming a genuine threat to our mortality – with statistics revealing that they’re now officially more dangerous than sharks. Just last September, a similar incident saw one Texan 19-year-old get fatally shot in the throat while attempting to take an Instagram selfie with a loaded gun. Are we really that desperate for likes? What is even happening?
It’s got so bad, that some governments are even being forced to take official action. In a bid to curb this recent spate of ‘selfie deaths’, Russia has published a ‘safe guide’ to its citizens; offering step-by-step advice on the most risk-free way to take a selfie. In India – where 40 per cent of these kinds of fatalities take place (19 deaths out of 49 over the last three years have happened there) – ‘no-selfie zones’ have actually been imposed by authorities. According to Mumbai police, a number of locations throughout the Indian city have been identified as high-risk areas.
“We have decided to identify 16 spots where taking selfies can be dangerous but we may add more," said Dhananjay Kulkarni, a spokesperson for Mumbai Police. “The police will now approach the city’s municipality to prevent accidents at such spots due to people taking selfies.”
