Middle schooler dies after deadly chin-up

By Bae Ji-sook

Staff reporter

A middle school student fell to his death from an apartment building after demonstrating a “deadly chin-up” from the edge of the roof to his friend, police said Monday.

The deceased was apparently reenacting a scene from a video clip spreading online which shows a man doing the same from the top of a steel tower.

According to police at Gunsan, North Jeolla Province, 14-year-old Ahn fell from the seventh floor of his apartment around 5: 20 a.m. Monday while clinging to the rail of an emergency staircase.

A witness was quoted as saying by the police that Ahn soon felt tired and called for help. He initially asked the friend to wait on the ground floor to catch him there but soon asked him to come upstairs. While the friend was moving up, Ahn fell and died.

Investigators suspect a video clip distributed online of a man doing a similar kind of thing inspired Ahn.

This is not the first time adolescents have been swept by a trend egging them to risk their lives. In 2007, an elementary school student in Gunsan died after suffocating himself while playing a “collapse game.”

“There are always people craving for attention and affection with dangerous tricks. Parents and teachers need to pay extra attention to them,” a police officer said.