A photograph of a man taking a selfie in front of an injured woman who had been struck by a train has sparked outrage across the world and raised a question about ethics.
Last month, a Canadian woman was struck by a train at Piacenza station near Milan in northern Italy after she either walked out of the wrong door or rushed to board the train as it was leaving the station, but it is the “inhuman” and “unethical” acts of one man that has sparked outrage across the world.
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As emergency services rendered aid to the badly injured woman, who would later be transported to a hospital where her leg would be amputated, an unknown man wearing white Bermuda shorts and a t-shirt stopped on the station’s platform and snapped a selfie of the scene, allegedly making a “V for victory” sign. Although police intervened and made him delete the photo, according to the BBC, journalist Giorgio Lambri photographed the moment which has since made headlines around the world.
“The barbarism you don’t expect: the ‘selfie’ in front of a tragedy,” the headline reads for Sunday’s Piacenza newspaper Liberta, placing the shocking image front and center. However, Lambri suggested his own headline: “Houston, we’ve got a problem.”
“I have seen many crimes and terrifying scenes, but I’m not ready to [see] this,” Lambri told Canada’s Global News. “The most terrible thing is that guy [doesn’t] understand absolutely the badness of his behavior.”
Others have felt similarly, with people taking to Lambri’s Facebook post to call the man’s actions a “repulsive affair,” one person claiming “so sad we have forgotten our humanity,” and others stating that the man’s actions were “unethical.”
“There is little hope left in humanity when you see that a witness takes a shameful selfie with a woman hit by a train and who’ll be amputated shortly after,” one person wrote.
“This woman has just been hit by a train in Piacenza. She will lose a leg. This imbecile is taking a selfie. More depressing every day the loss of values and decorum,” another commented.
Local radio host Nicola Savino stated that the human race was “galloping towards extinction,” and Antonella Boralevi, a commentator for newspaper La Stampa, said it was a “cancer that corrodes the internet.”
Italian authorities have since opened an investigation into the train accident and have identified the man who took the selfie. Canadian officials are reportedly “in contact with local authorities” to gather more information about the incident.
