Scumbag Tourists Are Taking Smiling Selfies At NYC Explosion Site

According to New York's least popular brand of tourist, it's not a disaster until you've taken a picture in front of it.

After last week's East Village gas explosion, which toppled three buildings on 2nd Avenue, the New York Post reportedly spotted a problematic trend: tourists snapping photos of themselves in front of the flaming ruins.

The paper published a photo of friends huddled under a selfie stick, captioning the image,

Village idiots.

As images surfaced across Instagram and Twitter, the Post cataloged them.

The New York Post even noted residents near the site of the explosion posted handwritten signs asking pedestrian rubberneckers to "show some respect."

The lighthearted photos couldn't be further from the tragedy of the scene itself.

Around 10 hours ago, The New York Times reported firefighters recovered the bodies of 23-year-old Nicholas Figueroa, who had been on a date at the sushi restaurant that exploded, and busboy Moises Ismael Locón Yac, 27.

The Thursday afternoon explosion wreaked havoc on a normally peaceful section of the East Village.

A reporter for @Univision snaps a selfie while covering East Village fire pic.twitter.com/ghuqyNPrEW — Matthew Chayes (@chayesmatthew) March 26, 2015

Former Iowa Democratic Party communications director Christina Freundlich, who reportedly removed the picture below from her Instagram, apologized to the Des Moines Register for her "careless and distasteful" image.

Jeanie Slade told the Post her selfie was a "satiric" take on the way tourists gawk at accident sites.

Two little words sum up the situation quite nicely.

Citations: Tourist Takes Smiling Selfie From East Village Explosion Site (Gothamist)