Seven young men drowned and one other is feared dead after their small boat capsized as they posed for a selfie.

In a Facebook Live Stream the group of eleven young men can be seen laughing and joking seconds before they lost balance and fell in the water.

Police said the men, aged in their teens and early 20s, were 'so engrossed in live streaming' they didn't realise they had all 'come to one corner of the boat'.

Most of the group drowned moments after taking this selfie

The friends tried to fit in the frame for a Facebook Live Stream

They can be seen laughing and joking seconds before they lost balance and fell in the water

The boat capsized in the middle of the Vena dam near Nagpur in the Indian state of Maharashtra during at around 7pm.

The video shows shows the group screaming in joy in front of the camera and shuffling around the boat for a better angle and one body being removed from the water in a stretcher by a rescue force.

SP Shailesh Balkawade said: 'It seems these youngsters had hired local fishermen for boating, which is not allowed in the dam.

'The boat they got into was narrow. It tilted and capsized when they started clicking 'selfies' on reaching the mid point of the reservoir.'

Local reports say two of the boatsman and a student survived the ordeal, managing to swim ashore.

Locals and rescue services gather by the lake to search for survivors and recover bodies

Local reports say two of the boatsman and a student survived the ordeal, managing to swim ashore.

The deceased were identified as Harshal Adamne (18), his brother Chetan Adamne (20), Govardhan Thote (18), Rahul Walode (23), Ram Shivarkar (24), Maqsood Sheikh (27) and Abdul Sayeed (21), all from Ashirwad Nagar in Nagpur city.

An eyewitness, who alerted police when the boat capsized, said the group started creating a ruckus and clicking selfies.

Balkawade said that the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) team has been called in for rescue operations as the search for survivors continues.