Teenager killed after gun mistakenly goes off while taking a selfie

Abdullah and his cousin were trying to take a selfie with a loaded pistol in Muzaffargarh

MUZAFFARGARH:

A 14-year-old boy was killed after a pistol he was holding mistakenly went off while taking a selfie in Punjab's Muzaffargarh on Wednesday.

Police said that the victim, who has been identified as Abdullah, had gone with his relatives to the Bhutta Pur village.

Abdullah along with his cousin were trying to take a selfie with a loaded gun in one hand. The pistol, however, accidentally went off with a bullet hitting him.

According to eye-witnesses, the teenager boy died on the spot.

Selfies: five times more deadly than shark attacks

The police said that the victim's family has refused to take any legal action.

Selfies, which have become a global sensation in the last decade or so, have remarkably killed five times more people than shark attacks.

And the death toll has crept up incrementally each year as smartphones become more sophisticated and selfie-sticks increase the range at which people can snap themselves, prompting them to take bigger risks for the perfect shot.

Between October 2011 and November 2017, at least 259 people died taking selfies around the globe, according to India’s Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care, compared to just 50 people killed by sharks in the same period.