Lenin statue in Tomsk loses its torso after beheading

A Lenin statue that had been decapitated after an attack by a Russian has been further damaged after a young man tried to take a selfie alongside the iconic image of the former leader.

“A young man wanted to have his picture with Lenin, so he climbed up on to the monument’s pedestal,” the official from Siberia’s Moryakovsky village told AFP.

“He then lost his balance and hung on by grabbing Lenin’s torso.”
The torso and the young man both fell down with the youth fracturing his leg and wrist, the official added.

The monument in Tomsk, Siberia, lost its head in May when a drunken soldier pounded it with a hammer.

“We don’t find this funny,” the local official said.

Man sentenced to one year in prison for beheading #Lenin statue in village of Moryakovsky, #Tomsk Region, Russia. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/Y4ku8tvnxc

— RUSARTNET (@RUS_ART_NET) July 21, 2015

All that remains are Lenin’s legs and the official said that the monument would be dismantled over the coming days.

Dozens of Russian have been killed in selfie-related accidents since the beginning of the year, the Russian police has said.

The interior ministry has recently launched a campaign warning that selfies can be dangerous.