Tourist, 53, Dies After Trying to Take Selfie While Leaning Out of Train: Reports

Mar. 15, 2025

A train travels near Ella in Sri Lanka (stock image).Photo:Getty

Getty

A 53-year-old Russian tourist died this week while attempting to take a photo of herself on the footboard of a train in Sri Lanka.

On Wednesday, Feb. 19, Olga Perminova was traveling on the Podi Menike rail line when she tried to take a selfie while hanging from the train’s footboard, according to the localDaily Mirrornewspaper, which cited Hali Ela Police.

While apparently posing for the image, the woman hit a rock and fell off the train, sustaining severe injures, per the outlet, which noteed that she later died at Badulla Teaching Hospital. According to Sri Lankan news aggregatorNewswire— which also cited authorities, shared apparent footage of the aftermath but did not identify the woman — the fall occurred between the Badulla and Hali-Ela railway stations.

Train travels from Ella to Kandy in Sri Lanka (stock image).Getty

Perminova was part of a Russia tour group in Sri Lanka, according toMetroand theU.S. Sun, which shared an image of the woman apparently leaning off the side of the train in a pink dress before the accident.

The grandmother, per both outlets, was originally from Saratov and worked for a security company around Moscow. Diplomats in Russia were reportedly arranging to bring her home, the outlets shared.

At the time of the accident, the train was reportedly headed toward Ella, which houses Sri Lanka’s famousNine Arch Bridge— an over-100-year-old structure that the Visit Ella website described as “one of the engineering marvels in the early 20th century.”

The Russian tourist’s death is not the first time a visitor of another country has put themselves in danger in an attempt to take a photo.

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source: people.com