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A Brooklyn girl tragically lost her life after subway surfing in New York City, having been recorded engaging in the risky activity just days prior.
The distressing footage showed Zemfira Mukhtarov, 12, walking atop a beam as an incoming train zoomed below her at a dangerous speed.
In a separate TikTok video, the teen girl was lying on the tracks and filming the undercarriage of a passing train as eerie music played.
The videos were posted on September 8 and 13.
Mukhtarov was discovered dead on top of a J train in Brooklyn on October 4 alongside Ebba Morina, 13, of Manhattan.
The young girls were discovered atop the last train car at approximately 3:10 am after the subway had traversed the Williamsburg Bridge and reached Marcy Avenue station.
Morina’s TikTok account also showed her climbing the Brooklyn Bridge and browsing empty subway stations alongside her friends.
In one clip posted on July 18, Morina filmed herself on a subway platform singing along to a song as the Q train pulled in behind her.
Zemfira Mukhtarov, 12, was seen walking atop a beam as an incoming subway train zoomed past her in footage captured weeks before her death
Ebba Morina, 13, was also found dead on top of a J train in Brooklyn on Saturday. She is pictured at an MTA station on the Upper East Side
In a separate clip, Mukhtarov is lying on the tracks and filming the undercarriage of a passing train
Subway surfing involves individuals climbing onto the roofs of train cars and riding them at high and perilous speeds as the trains move through the city and arrive at stations.
Mukhtarov and Morina were part of a group of roughly 15 teens who were running around the train before being found on the roof.
Nataliya Rudenko, Mukhtarov’s mother, informed FOX 5 New York that she was preparing breakfast while her 11-year-old daughter recognized Mukhtarov’s skateboard and a purse featured in a news segment on TV.
Rudenko said: ‘She was supposed to be asleep in her room.
‘Now we’re planning her funeral.’
The 12-year-old had met Morina online, Rudenko said, and ‘snuck out’ of her Bay Ridge home to go subway surfing.
The videos showing Mukhtarov performing the subway surfing viral trend were posted on September 8 and 13
Mukhtarov and Morina were in a group of about 15 teens who were running around the train before later being spotted on the roof
Mukhtarov would have turned 13 in two weeks, a GoFundMe started by her family said.
Her father, Ruslan Mukhtarov, expressed: ‘No parent should ever endure the agony of losing a child, and no child should meet such a tragic end.’
‘We are wrestling with this overwhelming sorrow and are reaching out to our community for support to provide Zemfira with the dignified and loving farewell she deserves.’
A public tribute wall for Morina described the Robert F. Wagner Middle School student as a ‘smart, beautiful and ambitious child.’
One note left by Charlie and Natali said: ‘You were always so nice, and so sweet.
‘Every day of your life, you made people smile and laugh. You will always be in the memory of everyone in the school of Wagner.’
Another message from Alba and Nela said: ‘The gardener always picks the most beautiful flowers from the garden.’
Commenters also paid their condolences on Morina’s TikTok profile.
One user wrote: ‘You were young kid, you can rest now.’
Another said: ‘You will be missed forever – fly so high.’
Posts from a TikTok account belonging to Morina showed her performing dangerous stunts
Subway surfing has claimed the lives of five New Yorkers so far in 2025.
Justin Brannan, the New York City Council member who represents Bay Ridge, posted on X: ‘Bay Ridge tragically lost a young soul, Zemfira Mukhtarov, this past Saturday as a result of dangerous subway surfing.’
He added: ‘It is imperative that we speak to our kids about the grave danger [subway surfing] poses.
‘It seems clear that they are being lured into this insanely dangerous and deadly activity by social media.
‘We need to help them realize that the decision to try and do this could very well be fatal. We have already lost too many children.’
New York Police Department data shared with the Daily Mail showed that more than 415 people had been arrested for subway surfing between January 2023 and April 2025.
Last year, six people died performing the viral trend. All of them were between 11 and 15 years old.
That included Alam Reyes, 14, who fell off a train in Brooklyn that January and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Grabs from Mukhtarov’s TikTok account showed the teen girl on the subway days before she and her friend died
NYPD data showed that more than 415 people had been arrested for subway surfing between January 2023 and April 2025
‘Ride inside, stay alive’ announcements have played over the subway speakers since 2023
His half-brother said Reyes had ditched school that day and gone subway surfing with a friend.
In 2023, five people died, which totaled the number of subway surfing deaths between 2018 and 2022.
That February, Zackery Nazario was killed while subway surfing on a Brooklyn-bound J train over the Williamsburg Bridge.
His mother Norma sued the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, TikTok’s parent company ByteDance and Meta, claiming that the apps ‘targeted, goaded and encouraged’ Zackery to ‘engage in subway surfing.’
She also said that apps such as TikTok ‘deliberately tweaked the design and operation of their apps to exploit’ kids like her son, who were ‘uniquely susceptible to addictive features’ found in social media.
The case entered discovery this June.
The claims against the MTA were dismissed since ‘the realities of life in this city’ should have informed Zackery about the dangers of subway surfing.
The MTA has played ‘ride inside, stay alive’ public service announcements over the subway speakers since 2023.
The NYPD also launched a drone program that year to provide ‘live aerial surveillance’ that helps officers ‘intervene before a stunt becomes fatal.’
The program had resulted in 200 subway surfing rescues, according to New York City mayor Eric Adams and NYPD commissioner Jessica Tisch.
Subway surfing has been traced back to the 1980s, with one of the earliest subway surfing deaths being recorded in 1938.
