More Selfie-Related Deaths Than Those Caused by Shark Attacks

More people have died while trying to take a selfie than they have in shark attacks this year, according to Condé Nast Traveller magazine.

The act of taking a selfie—a self-portrait taken with a camera or phone held in the hand or using a 'selfie stick'—has so far led to the deaths of 12 people in 2015 according to The Guardian, compared to eight people who have been killed in shark attacks.

Four of the selfie deaths were caused when the person attempting to take the photo lost their balance and fell, while the next leading cause of death was people being hit by moving vehicles.

The first reported casualty related to selfie-taking was in April, 2014 when a 17-year-old Russian girl fell to her death from a railway bridge in the city of St. Petersburg. Other incidents include a Romanian teenager who electrocuted herself while attempting to take "ultimate selfie" on top of a train when she accidentally touched a live wire, and a pilot who crashed a plane in Colorado last year, after reportedly taking photos of himself.

The Russian government launched a campaign using the hashtag #safeselfie earlier this year to encourage people to take precautions while trying to take the popular self-portraits. The project included a leaflet which showed stick figures getting injured as they attempted to take selfies in a variety of dangerous locations, including when holding a gun and standing on an electricity pylon.

A study published earlier in June revealed that one in five young Britons take selfies while driving.

Corrections: The picture caption incorrectly stated that the figures are a result of a study. The headline has been corrected to reflect the fact that the deaths were selfie-related as opposed to caused by selfies.