Disturbing video shows a large group of Chinese selfie-takers swept up by a giant tidal bore

With selfie-related fatalities hitting news headlines more and more often (officially nine so far in 2024,  including, last month Czech gymnast Natalie Stichova, who fell 80m to her death in Germany) we'd hope people would be wising up to the fact that you need to be sensible when it comes to taking photographs in the great outdoors.

This crowd of selfie-takers in China clearly didn’t get the memo. A group of about 20 of them got wiped out by a tidal bore which appears to have been the reason they were down at the riverbank in the first place.

It’s disturbing to watch, as it could have resulted in multiple deaths, but thankfully that doesn’t appear to be the case. A commenter on the video, which was posted to X a few days go, has translated the text, revealing that it says, “When the Qiantang River in Hangzhou, China was in high tide, two fathers protected their children and were finally rescued safely.” The same commenter later clarified that no one died in the incident.

It is possible that the bore was a lot larger than normal – and that’s what caught people out, as a result of typhoon Yagi, a superstorm that has left a trail of destruction in its wake across the Philippines, south-eastern China and north Vietnam. Yagi sadly killed at least 141 people in Vietnam.

Whatever the real reason, the video is a sobering reminder to be aware of your surroundings before you consider posing for another shot.

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