Tourist dies after falling into boiling geyser while trying to take a selfie(Photos)

A tourist has died in hospital after falling into a geyser (a vent in Earth's surface that periodically ejects a column of hot water and steam)whilst apparently trying to take a selfie.Françoise Guillaume, 68, suffered 85 per cent burns to her body in the freak accident at one of the scorching water  at the world-famous El Tatio in Chile last Friday.

The woman from Belgium walked over to one of the geysers, which can hit heights of up to 18ft, but slipped when she was surprised by their ferocity and fell into the hot spring.


Her frantic husband, constitutional judge Francois Daout, was able to pull her out, and she was flown to the special burns unit at the Hospital de Santiago de Chile after the accident on Friday.

But hospital staff have now confirmed she the retired physician lost her battle for survival.

“She died this morning at dawn,” said a source at the hospital in Santiago where she was taken after the accident.

An official warning on the tourist attraction's site says:
 "Not all of the ground in El Tatio in stable.

"Be especially careful near the salty crusts of the “ojos del agua” (bodies of water).
"They’re very brittle and if they give way you could get a bad burn, as the waters reaches temperatures of 85ºC."

Speaking after the accident, her step-son Augustin told La Province his step-mother had not been stupid but had been a victim of chance.
Her daughter Bérengère Deroux said her mother had been dazzled by the sun when she stepped back into the hole.

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