Students Fall to Death While Taking Selfies Atop C. Java Waterfall
Jakarta. Two high school have plunged to their deaths from a Central Java cliff while trying to take selfies, an official said on Tuesday.
A search and rescue team found the bodies of Reza Ardiansyah and Syarief Hidayat in the Coban Baung river in the Purwodadi botanical garden on Sunday and Monday evening, after they were declared missing during a school outing on Saturday.
The two were students from State Vocational High School 13 in Malang, East Java.
A spokesman for Pasuruan Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD), Sugeng Haryadi, said Reza and Syarief were trying to take a picture of themselves from the top of a waterfall when they slipped and fell down.
"The victims slipped and plunged to their deaths into the depth of Coban Baung waterfall when they were taking selfies," Sugeng said on Tuesday.
"Syarief's body was found not far from ...the waterfall but Reza's body was found some 30 kilometers away from the scene," he said.
The bodies of the students, both 17-year-old, were taken to Saiful Anwar hospital in Malang for autopsy and have been picked up by their family for burial.
School principal Husnul Chotimah said the teens had just concluded their field research and decided to use a day off to go to Coban Baung waterfall with five friends.
One of the friends, Fian, said he tried to save Reza and Syarief but failed.
"I managed to get a hold of Reza, who was holding Syarief, but it was very slippery so I lost them and they were swept away by the current," Fian said.
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