Russian cops investigate whether hundreds of teen deaths are linked to twisted social media groups that manipulate happy kids into taking their lives
Two teenagers plunged to their deaths from 14-storey building last week after falling prey to sinister social media groups
POLICE in Russia are investigating a rush of teenage suicide attempts amid fears that they may have been manipulated by sinister social media groups.
Two schoolgirls Yulia Konstantinova, 15, and Veronika Volkova, 16, fell to their deaths on Sunday from the roof of a 14-storey apartment block.
Today an unnamed 15-year-old girl was critically injured after falling onto snowy ground from a fifth floor flat in the city of Krasnoyarsk, also Siberia.
Two days earlier, a 14-year-old girl from Chita was reported to have thrown herself under a commuter train.
In all cases, state investigators are probing whether a controversial social media "suicide game" has influenced the girls to seek to take their lives.
Yulia left a note saying "End" on her social media page.
Her friend Veronika also wrote: "Sense is lost... End."
She regularly posted messages such as, "Do you feel that gradually you become useless?", or "I'm just a ghost".
It was reported that two teenage boys were detained by police at the scene after allegedly filming the tragic double suicide.
The Russian Investigative Committee has opened a probe on "incitement to suicide" regarding the pair's death.
"Investigators checked the scene, the homes of the minors, and interviewed relatives and friends of the victims, to establish their motives," said a statement.
"Particular attention during the investigation of the criminal case will be given to the study of their social contacts on the Internet."
In Krasnoyarsk, law enforcement recently opened three criminal cases of incitement to suicide involving schoolgirls via the groups on social media.
In all three cases, the teenagers were rescued.
One local school director told police he had received an anonymous call saying a student had joined a "group of death" and planned soon to kill herself.
The police identified the girl who explained that she had joined a "game" and had been given "tasks" by the group administrator.
She did not obey the commands, which involved self-harm, but there are fears that others did.
In the Chita case, transport police confirmed the game is a possible "cause of death".
A second girl had made plans to kill herself with the dead teenager, but changed her mind at the last moment.
There was deep concern last year when there were fears that the sinister masterminds could be behind at least 130 suicides across Russia.
Some of the more innocent "tasks" given to teens include watching horror movies all day, and waking themselves at 4.20 am, but gradually get more extreme.
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After the arrest of a supposed ringleader, there was a reduction in cases, but now there is a major new fear of vulnerable teenagers being swayed by the barbaric death social media accounts.
Investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta reported last year: "We have counted 130 suicides of children that took place between November 2015 to April 2016.
"Almost all these children were members of the same internet groups and lived in good, happy families."
It went on: "We know absolutely for sure is that adults are working with children, with the help of knowledge of their habits and passions, using their favourite language and culture.
"They know psychology well, they convince girls that they are 'fat', tell boys that they are 'losers' in this world.
"And that there is another world and they will be among the chosen."
A report on Ren TV said that an internal report by the FSB secret service, once headed by Vladimir Putin, "indicated that the problem of provoking suicides among underage children via the Internet is really serious".
Last year, an alleged ringleader named as 21-year-old Philipp Budeikin was detained, and he has been charged with organising eight groups between 2013 and 2016 which "promote suicide".
Some 15 teenagers committed suicide, and another five were rescued at the last moment, according to the case against him.
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