Blue Whale Challenge: Police found a big clue when a blue whale shape carved into her arm with a knife.
Highlights
- The police reached the spot just as the girl was jumping off a hilltop
- When questioned, she reportedly said she had to "finish a task"
- "Blue whale" shape was carved into her arm with a knife offering a clue
A 17-year-old who had carved a "
Blue Whale" into her arm was rescued after she jumped off a cliff into a lake in Rajasthan's Jodhpur around midnight yesterday. "If I don't complete my task my mother will die," she told the policemen who dragged her out of the water.
The girl, spotted circling around the lake on her scooter for some time, was saved by divers and policemen and handed over to her parents.
The teen, the daughter of a Border Security Force (BSF) soldier, had left home on Monday night claiming she was going to the market.
When she did not return, her parents called her on her mobile phone. They realized she had left it lying somewhere when it was picked up by a stranger.
The family panicked and started looking for the missing girl, who, in the meantime, had been spotted riding her scooter around the lake. Om Prakash, who works in the area, saw the girl park her scooter and weep.
"She was crying...I realised she was going to jump into the lake. I ran behind her and tried to stop her. I started talking to her and asked her what's the matter, she said my mother will die.
Why will your mother die, I asked. She said her game was nearing the end and if she did not complete her task her mother would die," Om Prakash told NDTV.
She ran up and plunged into the lake as the horrified man watched. He jumped in immediately and pulled her out.
"We got information at around 11 pm last night that a girl was driving around Kaylana lake...we reached the spot. She was pulled out just in time," said Lekhraj Sihag, a police officer.
Several states are struggling with cases suspected to be linked to the deadly online challenge that originated in Russia; some 100 deaths across the world have been linked to it.
The game draws in people, mostly children and teenagers, through online chat rooms. The administrator sniffs out vulnerable candidates and switches to a private chat mode where the player has to take up 50 macabre dares. These include cutting and isolating oneself, listening to disturbing songs, spending time in graveyards, watching horror movies and finally, jumping off a building. For the last dare, the player is given a choice - kill yourself or watch someone close die.