Video Catches Moment Family Drives Off Cliff by Popular Russian Destination

A terrifying video shows a Russian family’s final moments after their car drove off a cliff and plummeted 230 feet into the water below at a popular tourist area in southern Russia.

The footage, which was posted online Friday by the Daily Mail, and appears to originate from Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, shows the car driving off the cliff and into the water below. The incident occurred near a waterfall on the Tobot River, which is a tourist destination in the Republic of Dagestan, according to the Daily Mail.

The news outlet reported that Rustam Gabinov, his wife Alfina, and their two children died following the crash. The family reportedly hailed from the Orenburg region, and their bodies were recovered by police following the fatal plunge, according to the Daily Mail.

Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for additional information.

In a separate incident in 2018, five people died after a car plunged off a 100 foot cliff in California on the Pacific Coast Highway, The Press-Democrat reported at the time.

In Australia in 2020, a car fell off a cliff and hit a mother and her baby who miraculously survived. The New South Wales Police said at the time that a Volkswagen Golf drove off the cliff from a parking lot and landed in the sand. The woman and her child, who were on the beach, were hit by the car with the woman suffering non-life-threatening injuries.

“When we are called to an accident like this, the scene can be quite chaotic. It’s a miracle no one was seriously injured,” Jason Saper, New South Wales ambulance duty operations manager, said at the time. “The car took a substantial dive off the cliff and it was a miracle to find everyone alive when we arrived on scene.”

In Brazil earlier this year, at least 10 people were killed when a slab of rock broke away from a cliff and collapsed into the water on nearby boaters. In total, at least 32 people were injured.

“It’s normal to happen in many canyons, even with rocks of that size,” he said. “But nowadays, with the intensification of tourism, people are starting to get closer to these places and to register these phenomena with their cellphones,” Tiago Antonelli, the head of the Applied Geology Division of Brazil’s Geological Service, said.