Man kills himself after taking a pin out of grenade for selfie

MOSCOW: A Russian man has died after he accidentally pulled the pin out of a hand grenade and posted photographs of himself holding it.

Alexander ‘Sasha’ Chechik was killed instantly in the incident in the city of Labinsk in south west Russia, police said.

According to local news outlet Kuban.kp.ru, the man had sent a text to a friend, including a picture of the grenade in his hand with the pin pulled from the device lying nearby.

In the text exchange, the man’s friend asks him where he is and if everything is ok.

“It depends by what you mean ‘OK’,” he replied, posting the photograph of the grenade.

“Listen, don’t f*** around,” his friend then replied before following it up with: “Where are you,” to which they received no response.

According to Russia’s Interfax news service, police have launched an investigation into the illegal trafficking of weapons and ammunition.

A source who spoke to Interfax said: “Apparently the guy did no manage to insert [the hand grenade pin] back in. The explosion broke him in half.”

Chechik expected the grenade would not explode as long as he didn’t throw it, police say.