While women take the most selfies, young men, who are more prone to take risks, make up three-quarters of the selfie deaths – in drownings, crashes, falls and shooting accidents.

India, with a population of more than 1.3 billion who own 800 million cell phones, holds the record for the number of people dying in the act of photographing themselves, with 159 recorded so far.

That is more than half of the global total – and a testament of sorts to the nation’s love of group photos and its youthful population.

India’s selfie deaths include a groups of youths dying when they were hit by a train, and another group drowning when their boat sank at the moment they were clicking the shutter.

The situation has become so dire that India has set up “no selfie” zones – 16 of them in the city of Mumbai alone.

The country came in far ahead of Russia (16 deaths), the United States (14) and Pakistan (11).

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In Russia, people have fallen from bridges and high-rise buildings, shot themselves – one even died while handling a landmine. Russian police issued a guide to “selfies without danger” in 2015.

In the United States, most of those involved in selfie deaths fatally shot themselves while seeking the perfect pose. A number of people have fallen to their deaths at the Grand Canyon.

Rescue services in Croatia used Twitter to ask tourists to “stop taking stupid and dangerous selfies” after a Canadian miraculously survived a 75-metre (250-foot) fall in the Plitvice lakes region.

In January, Taiwanese social media celebrity Gigi Wu – known as the “Bikini Climber” for taking selfies on top of mountain peaks dressed in a bikini – died when she fell into a ravine. She was 36.

Even when they are not fatal, selfies can be extremely macabre.

In 2014, a Brazilian woman sparked rage online when she took a smiling selfie in front of the coffin of presidential candidate Eduardo Campos at his funeral.

Social media influencer Sueli Toledo also caused a stir online when she posted a picture on Instagram with the caption: “My look today for the funeral of a super friend.”

Selfies in places deemed sacred or hallowed – especially when they honour the dead – can also raise questions.

At the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz in Poland, visited by 2.1 million people every year, museum staff do not hesitate to contact people who post selfies deemed to be inappropriate.

From Brazil to Vietnam and Germany, witnesses to traffic accidents have posted selfies at the scene of the crash – a practice generally seen as crude.

More and more, selfies – even in tourist havens – are becoming a bit of a nuisance for locals.

Residents of the picturesque Rue Cremieux in Paris were so disturbed by the constant stream of selfie-snapping tourists outside their windows that they started their own Instagram account, clubcremieux, where they publish pictures of the most absurd posers outside their doors, skewering them with barbed captions.

In Hong Kong, residents of a vast multicoloured apartment complex called Choi Hung (“Rainbow Estate”) – a major selfie hotspot – put up signs banning photos.

In Brazil, several youths made a buzz on Facebook in 2017 when they posted smiling selfies taken among terrified bus passengers who had thrown themselves to the floor during a shooting.

Facing the mad frenzy of endless selfies, Vienna has launched a campaign for a digital detox. Last year, the Belvedere Museum put up a large copy of Gustav Klimt’s classic painting The Kiss obscured with a giant red hashtag to make a point about selfie-takers disturbing others’ experience. The real painting was moved one room along.