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(CNN) - Four members of the same family drowned in a dam in India on Sunday after falling into the water while trying to take a selfie.
The newly married bride V Nivedha, 20, died with her relatives Sneha, 22, Kanniga, 20, and Santosh, 14, who was the first to fall into the water, according to local police in the state from Tamil Nadu.
Her husband, G Perumalsamy, 25, survived and managed to save her sister Yuvarani Perumalsamy, 15.
India has recorded the highest number of self-deaths in any country in the world, according to a 2018 study.
The incident took place at the Pambar Dam in the south of the country, according to S Prabhakar, a senior police officer from the Krishnagiri district.
"They wanted to take a selfie in this place of the dam and they slipped," Prabhakar told CNN.
"The water level increased while they were there."
The bodies of the deceased were recovered immediately.
Some 259 people worldwide died while taking selfies between October 2011 and November 2017, according to a study published in the Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care in India.
They discovered that the majority of selfie deaths occurred in India, followed by Russia, the United States and Pakistan. The majority of the victims, around 72%, were men and under 30 years old.
India accounted for more than half of the world total, with 159 self-reported deaths reported since 2011. The researchers attributed the high number to the huge population of people under 30 in the country.
The issue has attracted the attention of the authorities, who have dedicated themselves to implementing areas without selfies in areas considered high risk.
Selfie