A 23-year-old Maryland man was rescued over the weekend after falling into the crater of Mount Vesuvius in Italy while taking a selfie.
The man, identified as Philip Carroll, visited the famed volcano, notorious for destroying the Roman city of Pompeii and blanketing it with ash in A.D. 79, with two family members on Saturday, according to Paolo Cappelli, the president of the Presidio Permanente Vesuvio, a base at the top of Vesuvius where guides operate from
The family hiked up Vesuvius from the town of Ottaviano and accessed the top of the volcano through a forbidden trail, Cappelli told NBC News over the phone.
"This family took another trail, closed to tourists, even if there was a small gate and 'no access' signs," Cappelli said.
When the family reached the top of the over 4,000-feet-high volcano, Carroll stopped to take a selfie and his phone fell into the crater.
“He tried to recover it, but slipped and slid a few meters into the crater. He managed to stop his fall, but at that point he was stuck," Cappelli said.
"He was very lucky. If he kept going, he would have plunged 300 meters into the crater,” he added.