Moscow teens risk their lives for new metro surfing craze

A new craze has come up in Moscow called metro surfing, which has teenagers risking their lives by clinging to the back of underground trains as they hurtle through darkened tunnels.

It has become so common to see the youngsters, usually sporting distinctive gloves and ski goggles, leaping onto the back of underground trains that Moscowvite commuters now barely bat an eye lid.

And as they cling on for dear life with the train quickly accelerating away from the platform, they are whisked within centimetres of tunnel walls facing a near certain death should they fall.

Some have even begun clambering onto roofs to literally "surf" the trains while others prefer to wedge themselves between carriages with nothing to hold onto.

Using cameras attached to their heads, the daredevils capture every twist and turn of their extreme escapade before uploading the footage to social network sites like YouTube and vkontakte - the Russian version of Facebook.

The phenomenon has seen massive Internet communities develop where train-surfers share and comment on each other's videos.

And as the stunts get more dangerous, the more comments and "likes" they get - boosting their online stardom.

The craze has already claimed the lives of would-be daredevils, most recently two Russian teens.

University students Viktor Vartanyan and Ivan Mikirtumov, both 19, died from multiple fractured bones and fatal spinal traumas after smashing into a low tunnel entrance.

"Most likely it was a collision with the bridge as the traumas of both students are identical," the Daily Mail quoted police investigator Sergey Turchenkov as saying.

"During the collision one of the guys dropped from the train and another one, already unconscious, was still on the roof of the moving train," he said. 

Police are now trawling CCTV camera footage from several stations to identify where the pair hitched the illegal ride - but the craze is proving difficult to halt.

With the maximum fine if caught set at a measly 100 - just £2.11 pounds - the teens see it as a price worth paying in their quest for Internet fame.