The viral 'train selfie accident' was apparently staged, say sources

A couple of weeks back, a video showing a man, in a blue T-shirt, getting hit by a moving train while taking a selfie near the rail tracks went viral. Prompting much outrage, the video was widely circulated on all social media platforms.
But what most of the news outlets missed was to verify the claims or the authenticity of the incident. It has now come to light that the video was fake.

As most would remember, the video had a man pointing towards a train approaching him at full speed. Expectedly, the train hits the youth and the video ends with a lot of chaos and disturbance, letting viewers think that the man had been injured.

Following this, several news channels reported that the man had been severely injured and the act was unanimously condemned. According to reports, there were several other selfie-accident cases reported after this.

Piyush Goyal, Union Minister for Railways, has reportedly said in a press release that it was ‘disheartening to know about these accidents’ and that the future of the country must avoid putting their lives at risk’.

The truth behind the event though is rather distressing.

In a further turn of events, a popular Telugu news channel has reported that the entire incident had been staged by the youth and his friends. The news channel has got hold of another video, in which the youth and his friends mock at the entire incident.

Believed to be working with the news channel, a journalist had shared the video on Twitter. The news channel has further claimed that the youth, who had been absconding since the accident video went viral, has been arrested.

This guy Shiva n his friends created MMTS train accident fake video, fooled ppl as accident took place, this guy works in a gym at Madapur as general instructor, got this info from my teammate who goes to this gym, now this guy is absconding pic.twitter.com/QebASR3FcS

— Nellutla Kavitha (@iamKavithaRao) January 25, 2018