Two young girls were found dead on a Brooklyn subway train early Friday morning, highlighting the extreme dangers of subway surfing, a growing trend among teenagers in New York City.
Zemfira Mukhtarov, 12, of Bay Ridge, and 13-year-old Ebba Morina of Manhattan, were discovered on top of the last car of a J train around 3:10 a.m., shortly after the subway crossed the Williamsburg Bridge and entered Marcy Avenue station.
Disturbing footage surfaced showing Mukhtarov performing the risky stunt just days before her death.
In one video, she walked along a narrow beam as an oncoming train passed below at high speed.
Another clip posted to TikTok showed her lying on the tracks while filming the undercarriage of a passing train as eerie music played in the background.
The videos were dated Sept. 8 and 13.
Morina’s TikTok account also contained videos of her climbing the Brooklyn Bridge and exploring empty subway stations alongside friends.
A clip posted on July 18 showed her singing on a subway platform as the Q train arrived behind her.
Subway surfing is a practice in which participants climb atop moving train cars and ride them as the trains travel across the city and pull into stations.
The activity carries extreme risk of injury or death.
Authorities said Mukhtarov and Morina were part of a group of roughly 15 teenagers who were running on top of the train before their deaths.
Nataliya Rudenko, Mukhtarov’s mother, told FOX 5 New York that she was preparing breakfast when her younger daughter spotted Mukhtarov’s skateboard and purse on television.
She said Mukhtarov “was supposed to be asleep in her room” at the time.
Rudenko said her daughter had met Morina online and had “snuck out” of the Bay Ridge home to go subway surfing.
According to a GoFundMe page started by Mukhtarov’s family, she would have turned 13 in two weeks.
Her father, Ruslan Mukhtarov, said, “No parent should ever have to face the pain of losing a child, and no child should lose their life in such a tragic way.”
“We are struggling to process this immense grief, and we are turning to our community for help to give Zemfira the respectful 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.”
Messages left by friends praised her kindness, with one stating, “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.”
Other notes compared her to a beautiful flower, with one message reading, “The gardener always picks the most beautiful flowers from the garden.”
Social media users also expressed 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.”
Subway surfing has already claimed the lives of five New Yorkers in 2025.
Justin Brannan, a New York City Council member representing Bay Ridge, posted on X: “Bay Ridge tragically lost a young soul, Zemfira Mukhtarov, this past Saturday as a result of dangerous subway surfing.”
Brannan emphasized the influence of social media on the trend, saying, “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.”
NYPD data shared with the Daily Mail shows that more than 415 people had been arrested for subway surfing between January 2023 and April 2025.
In 2024 alone, six people died performing the viral stunt, all aged between 11 and 15.
Past incidents include Alam Reyes, 14, who fell from a Brooklyn train in January 2024 and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Reyes had ditched school that day to engage in subway surfing with a friend, according to his half-brother.
The Daily Mail reported that in February 2023, Zackery Nazario died while subway surfing on a Brooklyn-bound J train over the Williamsburg Bridge.
His mother, Norma Nazario, filed a lawsuit against the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, TikTok’s parent company ByteDance and Meta, claiming the apps encouraged her son to participate in the activity.
The lawsuit against the MTA was dismissed, with courts ruling that “the realities of life in this city” should have made Nazario aware of the dangers.
Since 2023, the MTA has broadcast “ride inside, stay alive” announcements across the subway system.
The NYPD also launched a drone program in 2023 to provide “live aerial surveillance,” allowing officers to intervene before dangerous stunts turn fatal.
Mayor Eric Adams and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch reported that the program had resulted in 200 subway surfing rescues.
Subway surfing has historical roots dating back to the 1980s, with at least one recorded death as early as 1938.
Despite repeated warnings, public safety campaigns, and arrests, the trend continues to pose severe risks for teenagers in New York City.
