(AFP)

A Lenin statue, headless after an attack by a drunk Russian, has now lost its torso after a selfie-happy Siberian tried to pose alongside the image of the iconic Soviet leader, a local official said Monday.

"A young man wanted to have his picture with Lenin, so he climbed up onto the monument's pedestal," the official from Siberia's Moryakovsky village told AFP on condition of anonymity. "He then lost his balance and hung on by grabbing Lenin's torso."

Both the torso and the selfie-taker then fell down, with the latter ending up in hospital with a fractured leg and wrist, the official added.

The Soviet era monument, located some 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the Siberian city of Tomsk, has gone through a rough patch in recent months. In May, the three-metre-tall monument lost its head to a drunken man who pounded it with a hammer.

"We don't find this funny," the local official said.

The official said that Lenin's legs, all that remains of the hapless statue, would be dismantled in the coming days.

The latest incident is not the first time selfie enthusiasts have damaged vestiges of the Soviet era.

Last month, a Lenin statue in the city of Prokopyevsk crumbled under the weight of another drunk Siberian after a failed attempt at taking a selfie.

Dozens of Russian have been killed in selfie-related accidents since the beginning of the year, the Russian police has said. Russia's Interior Ministry launched a campaign earlier this month to promote safer selfies, urging the population to think twice before striking a hazardous pose.(ika)

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