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Russian Police Investigating Online Contest for Best Selfie with Deceased

Craig Sunter / Flickr

Police in the northern Russian city of Syktyvkar launched an enquiry into a community on Russian social network VKontakte dedicated to taking selfies with dead people, local news website Flashnord reported Friday.

The community, called "Selfie with the Deceased," attracted public attention after its creator Alfred Polyakov, a worker at a local funeral agency, created a contest for its members with a prize of 5,000 rubles ($78) going to the person who took the best selfie — with a 13-year-old girl who had died in a car crash in Syktyvkar two weeks earlier.

It elicited immediate outrage from the girl's relatives and numerous VKontakte users, the report said. An unidentified source within the local police said the actions of Polyakov would be investigated by the law.

The community was not available on the VKontakte social network at the time of publication.

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