Selfie craze claims seven young lives as students drown in river Ganga

Lucknow: At least ten students lost their lives after they fell in a river into Ganga river in Kanpur while taking selfies, an ANI report claimed. 

All the ten college students had gone for a picnic at Kanpur Ganga Barrage on Wednesday morning when the fatality took place, a police official said.

An eyewitness said that the victims, who were on a pleasure trip when one of them suddenly lost his control while he was taking a selfie and ventured into the river. 

When she raised an alarm, another student jumped into the river to save him but was caught in the current and drowned. In a bid to save their friends, the others too jumped into the river but drowned as none of them knew swimming. 

On hearing students screaming, few locals came to their rescue and jumped into the river. However, despite many attempts, only three students were rescued while rest others drowned. The locals later fished out other students' bodies with the help of fishermen, police said.

The deceased have been identified as Satyam, his brother Shivam, son of late Devta Prasad - Rohit, son of Vijay Gupta - Sachin, Sandip  - son of Ramesh Gupta, Golu - son of late Subhash Tiwari, Manjoor's son Maqsood. 

The city administration announced a compensation to the kin of the deceased students and handed over bodies of three students to their family members. Bodies of four other students were sent to a government hospital for post-mortem.