Italians up in arms as man takes a selfie in front of an accident

Italians up in arms as man takes a selfie in front of an accident

A journalist in Italy captured an image that made a very strong statement about how society has become desensitised to the pain of others.

train selfie

In Piacenza, a town on the outskirts of Milan, Italy, a man stood at a train station and took a selfie. There is nothing out of the ordinary about that, but take into consideration the fact that he was standing in front of the scene of a recent accident at the time and the story changes. 

Moments before the man took his picture, a woman was hit by a train and suffered severe injuries to her legs. In the background of the man's selfie you can see a small group of people trying to help the woman up from the tracks. This was definitely not the time to be posing for pictures. 

The picture was taken by Italian journalist Giorgio Lambri, who viewed the incident as a sign that society was losing its moral compass in an article titled "The barbarism you don't expect: the 'selfie' in front of a tragedy".

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Police who were attending to the accident scene spotted the man taking the picture and reportedly asked him to delete it. The woman was taken to hospital for amputation.

There have been no further reports about what the man's intentions were when he posed for the selfie.

Is it possible that he honestly didn't notice the woman in the background, or is this a clear sign that people today no longer have the capacity to empathise with others?

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