4 members of TN family drown while posing for selfie at Pambaru dam

The district collector has asked citizens to avoid taking selfies at water bodies.

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In a tragic accident, four members of a family in Tamil Nadu’s Krishnagiri district drowned while attempting to pose for a selfie at the Pambaru dam. On Sunday, the family, including a newly-wed couple, had taken a trip to the dam during a visit to their relative's house in Uthangarai taluk. While the family members were posing for a selfie, one teenager among the group reportedly slipped and fell, dragging his sisters along with him.

According to one report in The Hindu, Perumalsamy, 24 and his wife Nivedha, 20 from Bargur in Krishnagiri had married in September. The newly-wed couple, along with Perumalsamy's sister Yuvarani, aged 20, were visiting their relative Ilangovan at his house. Soon after, the trio went to the reservoir located in Marampatti village accompanied by Ilangovan's three children— Kanniga, aged 19, Sneha, aged 18 and Santosh, aged 14.

The newspaper reports that Santosh, a class 9 student, lost his balance and fell into the water on which they had all been standing while posing for the picture. However, the teenager reportedly gripped his sisters for balance but ended up pulling them down along with him. His sisters Kanniga, Sneha along with Nivedha, and Yuvarani too fell into the water.

As per a report in PTI, Prabhu was taking the selfie on his phone. He managed to jump into the water and rescue his sister Yuvarani even as the risky selfie turned fatal for the four others. The bodies were recovered and sent to the local government hospital for a postmortem.

According to one news report, the northern Tamil Nadu district has witnessed 19 deaths due to drowning in the recent past. Following Sunday's tragedy, Krishnagiri district collector S Prabhakar urged citizens not to take selfies in water bodies.

“When a few college students go near water bodies to indulge in selfie-taking, they unexpectedly end up falling in it. Therefore, be advised not to take selfies in water bodies. They young and old in Krishnagiri district should cooperate to avoid deaths,” he said.