U.S. Tourist Falls Into Mount Vesuvius While Taking A Selfie

Taking selfies can be dangerous business, just ask this Maryland man who fell inside Mount Vesuvius while trying to get the perfect shot.

Philip Carrol and two of his family members decided to hike to the top of the over 4,000-feet-high volcano over the weekend. When they finally made it to the top, Carroll took out his phone and started taking selfies, as most 23-year-olds would.

Unfortunately, his cell phone slipped out of his hands and fell into the crater. Carroll attempted to grab the phone but ended up following the phone into the volcano himself.

“He tried to recover it, but slipped and slid a few meters into the crater. He managed to stop his fall, but at that point he was stuck," the president of the Presidio Permanente Vesuvio explained.

"He was very lucky. If he kept going, he would have plunged 300 meters into the crater."

Three hundred meters is 984 feet.

Thankfully for Carroll, guides witnessed the incident while watching things unfold with binoculars from the other side of the rim. They used a long rope to pull him out of the volcano before finding that he suffered cuts on both his arms and back.

It goes without saying that Carroll was extremely lucky that the guides were aware of the situation seeing as how he and his family didn't climb the volcano on a regular trail.

According to the report, the family used a forbidden trail from the town of Ottaviano to access the still-active volcano.

Police arrived at the scene and reportedly charged Carroll and his family members with invasion of public land for climbing the volcano without purchasing a ticket as the general public is supposed to do.