Alleged coordinators of “death groups” detained in North Ossetia

Policemen have detained four suspected coordinators of "death groups", in which teenagers are induced to commit suicide, authorities of North Ossetia have reported. The detainees have stated that they had just "made a joke."

According to the government of North Ossetia, the detained coordinators of “death groups" were sending messages to their acquaintances inviting them to join the game named "Blue Whale".

The "Blue Whale" is one of the versions of the so-called "death games", where the aim of organizers is, according to law enforcers, to incline children to commit suicide. Players receive various tasks from the social network, for example, to hurt themselves with a razor blade by cutting out a silhouette of a whale. The final task is to commit a suicide.

"MIA employees have found and detained four residents of North Ossetia (two of them minors) who performed the role of coordinators of “death groups”, who were sending SMS-messages to their acquaintances inviting them to join the game. The detainees explained their actions by the intention to play their friends up," says the statement posted today on the website of the government of North Ossetia.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.