The rise in selfie deaths and how to stop them

Credit: BBC News

The number of people who die each year taking a selfie is on the rise but a team of US researchers now hope they can tackle the problem.

They are developing an app which will warn people when they are at risk.

Their research found 15 selfie-takers died in 2014, 39 in 2015 and 73 died in the first eight months of 2016.

They revealed where most incidents happen and how causes of death can change depending on where in the world you live.

The study has been led by PhD student Hemank Lamba and a team of friends at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

What did they find?

The first report (by a reputable news source) of a selfie-taker dying while snapping a picture was in March 2014.

Since then, Hemank and his team of researchers found there had been 127 recorded incidents of selfie deaths across the world.

76 of these took place in India, nine in Pakistan, eight in the US and six in Russia.

The most likely cause of death was falling from a great height, with people going to extreme lengths to take a selfie on cliffs or the top of buildings to impress followers on social media.

Read the rest on the BBC website

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