Chinese influencer falls 160 feet to her death while filming video on crane

An influencer from China died last week after falling from a crane while taking a video.

Xiao Qiumei, a 23-year-old crane operator, regularly shared videos of her daily life on Tiktok where she had a following of about 100,000 people, The New York Post reported. In her final video, the influencer, who was said to be a mother of two, was speaking into a camera from a crane cabin before falling about 160 feet to her death.

Xiao was seen falling to the ground with her phone still in her hand at around 5:40 p.m. Tuesday, when most of her co-workers had already left the site located in the city of Quzhou, in China's western Zhejiang Province, The Sun reported, citing eyewitnesses.

The video circulating online is said to be the footage that her phone captured, showing blurry images of equipment flying past the lens, the outlet said.

Xiao's family, however, denied that she would have been filming during work hours. According to the influencer's relatives, her death was the result of an accident and not an internet stunt. They said that she simply missed a step and fell as a result.

Xiao's funeral and cremation have already taken place, with her ashes placed under an umbrella in accordance with local traditions.

Earlier this month, another social media influencer had also fallen to her death while taking a photo. Sophia Cheung, an influencer from Hong Kong, was standing near a waterfall on the Tsing Dai stream when she slipped and fell into a 16-foot-deep pool.

Cheung's Instagram account had about 19,000 followers at the time of her death and featured nature photography and hiking stunts posted by the 32-year-old influencer.

A Mexican social media influencer named Odalis Santos Mena also died recently following a botched medical procedure to treat excessive underarm sweating. Mena, a celebrity in the fitness community, died from cardiac arrest while being administered anesthesia for the procedure.

Mena's death is currently being investigated by the Jalisco State Public Prosecutor's Office, The New York Post reported.