In the early hours of October 4, beneath the darkness and rumble of the J train crossing the Williamsburg Bridge, two teenage girls attempted what officials describe as an instance of “subway surfing,” the dangerous practice of riding on the roofs of moving subway cars.
At approximately 3:10 a.m. at the Marcy Avenue-Broadway station, first responders arrived to find two unresponsive bodies atop the last car of a Brooklyn-bound train. Both were declared dead at the scene. The New York City Police Department confirmed the victims were 12-year-old Zemfira Mukhtarov and 13-year-old Ebba Morina, both residents of Brooklyn. Known for their inseparable and “full of life” nature, the two girls had attended the same middle school, where they had formed a close friendship that would end far too soon, according to The New York Post.
Zemfira’s mother, Nataliya Rudenko, described her daughter as an active student in school who took martial arts and violin lessons, and seemed like any other child her age—until the stunts, amplified by social media, pulled her into increasingly dangerous territory.
In the days before the tragedy, Mukhtarov’s activity on TikTok showed a pattern of risky stunts and online daredevil behavior. She posted videos of herself lying across subway tracks as trains passed above, climbing onto a slim structural beam along the subway roof as trains zoomed through the tunnel beneath, and exploring abandoned buildings and rooftops—all actions that drew concern from family and friends aware of the danger. Despite warnings, her stunts increased in frequency and peril.
The shocking deaths have renewed concern among city and transit officials who say subway surfing—a decades-old stunt revived by viral social media videos—has become a growing threat among Manhattan teens.
“It’s heartbreaking that two young girls are gone because they somehow thought riding outside a subway train was an acceptable game,” Demetrius Crichlow, president of New York City Transit, said. “Getting on top of a subway car isn’t ‘surfing’—it’s suicide.” Crichlow added that transit crews who discovered the girls were “horribly shaken” by the incident.
Over the past year, the MTA has flagged “about 11,000 [social media] videos” glorifying such madcap activities on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, as stated by Jeremy Feigelson of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in a city council meeting. As a result, the city has launched several awareness campaigns, including “Ride Inside, Stay Alive,” which target schools and transit hubs through posters and digital ads discouraging these practices.
Safety advocates are now urging parents to monitor their children’s online activity more closely and to have frank conversations about the dangers of social media-driven dares. According to The Guardian, arrests of teenagers and young adults for subway surfing have risen by nearly 50% in 2025 compared to the previous year, with 164 minors arrested and six fatal incidents reported, figures from even before the recent tragedy.
For the victims’ families, those numbers have already become unbearably personal.
When Mukhtarov didn’t return home that night, her mother had assumed she was spending the night at a friend’s house. It wasn’t until the next morning that she realized something was wrong.
While watching the local news, she saw footage from the scene, which showed a skateboard and a purse. “[My daughter] said, ‘Mommy, that’s Zemfira’s,’” Rudenko told FOX 5 New York. “I said, ‘No, it’s someone else’s.’”
Once she spoke with the police and began connecting the details, the truth set in; her 12-year-old daughter was gone. Now, the city mourns and renews its calls for accountability, a refrain heard after each new subway surfing death. Meanwhile, Rudenko is left to cope with the great loss and disbelief of losing a child.
“She was supposed to be asleep in her room,” she said, recalling how Mukhtarov had snuck out to partake in the stunt. “Now we’re planning her funeral.”
