Teen Accidentally Hangs Himself To Death While Enacting Suicide Stunt For Instagram Reel

A teen boy in India tragically died after he accidentally hanged himself while filming a suicide stunt for Instagram reels.

The 16-year-old unidentified boy from Indore, a city in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, accidentally strangulated himself Monday in front of a group of his friends who were invited as an audience to watch him shoot the reel, police said Tuesday, as reported by News 18.

While the teen's family was away for a wedding, he invited his friends home to shoot a fake suicide sequence. To enact the scene, the teen tied a rope to the ceiling and put a noose around his neck while standing on a chair. However, the boy accidentally tripped from the chair leading him to choke to death, police said. The boy's friends who witnessed the incident were terrified and ran away.

The tragic incident came to light after the victim's brother came home sometime later. The brother alerted the neighbors, who then rushed the child to a hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival.

The teen's friends later told police that the accident happened while the boy was shooting a fake suicide video.

The teen boy frequently uploaded videos on social media platforms and his parents said they had made him delete all apps in the past owing to his addiction.

"We have found many videos he had uploaded on social media. Probably, this was also a video he wanted to upload, but he accidentally slipped and hanged himself," Kishore Kumar, a senior investigating officer told the Times of India.

However, police could not find the video of the incident and said they are examining the boy's phone as part of the investigation.

In October, a Chinese influencer died by suicide after some members of her audience encouraged her to drink pesticide during a live stream on social media. However, a friend of the 25-year-old female influencer, Luoxiaomaomaozi, claimed that the influencer did not intend to kill herself but wanted to attract her boyfriend through the act.

If you have thoughts of suicide, confidential help is available for free at the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Call 1-800-273-8255. The line is available 24 hours, every day.