‘Selfie’ quake tourism slated

Social media is a chronicle of life and sometimes death. So it should be no surprise that a site of great human and cultural loss in Nepal’s devastating earthquake is now barraged with the clicking of smartphones.

Near Kathmandu’s famed Dharahara Tower, a historic nine-storey structure reduced to an enormous pile of red brick dust, dozens of people clambered around the debris clicking selfies and photos of their friends posing in front of the wreckage.

The tower built by Nepal’s royal rulers in the 1800s was one of the country’s most treasured monuments, and was photographed far more than other buildings destroyed by Saturday’s quake. It is unclear how many people were killed in the tower, but it was believed to have been filled with tourists.