A 17-year-old girl in Russia has been arrested under suspicion of being behind the online Blue Whale suicide challenge.
The ‘game’, which has been linked to deaths all over Europe, encourages players, usually children, to complete a series of dangerous challenges up to suicide.
Police found evidence in the girl’s home that she had threatened to kill friends and family of the players if they didn’t comply with the rules of the game.
She had been a player of the game herself but instead of completing the game became an admin, encouraging other players.
“This administrator was sending particular tasks – often life-threatening – to each of several dozen members of the group,” Colonel Irina Volk of the Russian Interior Ministry told the Daily Mail.
“In contrast to similar groups, teenagers in this group were blackmailed with death threats against them or their relatives for not completing the tasks.”
The girl, whose identity has not been released, was arrested in the Khabarovsk Krai region in south-eastern Russia. A 21-year-old man was also arrested in relation to the game.
Blue Whale has already been linked to at least one death in Ireland – a 13-year-old boy in County Clare was believed by his family to have died as a result of it in May.
