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CHENNAI, India, Feb. 2 (UPI) -- A teenager was struck and killed by a passenger train while he attempted to take a selfie on railway tracks in the Indian city of Chennai, officials said. The 16-year-old student, after returning home from visiting friends on Sunday, was trying to take his own picture with the speeding train in the background but was unable to evade it in time, officials said.
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The death comes amid a recent spike in selfie-related deaths and injuries in India.
The BBC reported that an Austrian tourist in the western Indian city of Junagadh was rescued from a well after falling in while taking a photograph of himself.
In January, a young man reportedly fell to his death while taking a selfie from the ramparts of a fort in northern India.
The same month, an 18-year-old woman drowned off the coast of Mumbai in early January after falling into the sea while attempting to photograph herself. A man who jumped in to save the woman also drowned.
The latter incident prompted police in the Indian capital to implement "no-selfie" zones in popular tourist areas such as Girgaum Chowpatty beach and the Marine Drive promenade, which faces the sea.
The latest incident comes little more than two months after railway police in Mumbai made a series of visits to classrooms around the city to warn teens about the dangers of taking risky selfies.
