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Woman falls from 27th floor while taking selfie

An onlooker captured a video of her falling from another building.

A woman fell 27 floors from a high-rise building in Panama while taking a selfie and died a tragic death.

The 27-year-old woman was leaning against the railing of a balcony on the 27th floor of Luxor Tower on October 13 in a bid to take a selfie but lost her balance and fell, a report in Daily Mail said.

Photographs have emerged of the Portuguese woman identified as Sandra Manuela Da Costa Macedo. A video captured by an onlooker supposedly from another building shows the woman plunging to her death. She was a native of the northern Portuguese town of Aves and is survived by two children.

The onlooker can be heard shouting: "She's mad, there she goes, look at her, look at her, she's fallen." Paramedics who rushed to the scene declared the woman dead on the spot.

According to local reports, the incident is under investigation but police suspect that a gust of wind may have caused the woman to lose her balance and fall off. Post the tragic death of the woman, Panama's Fire Service posted a warning on their official Twitter account after the tragedy and wrote: "Don't risk your life for a selfie. It's more important to lose a minute in life than your life in a minute."

A Portuguese friend posted a tribute on Instagram and wrote: "This woman was a very good friend of mine, a mother of two children. She was a teacher and she was in Panama to work in her chosen profession."

All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi found in a recent study that 259 people died between October 2011 and November 2017 while attempting to take a selfie. The study published in the Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care said over 72 per cent of the deaths were men, while drowning was the most common cause of death during a selfie-taking attempt.