By Kim Bo-eun
Three teenage girls jumped to their deaths from an apartment building in Busan, police said Wednesday.
Their bodies were found around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday on the rooftop of a five-story building in Gwangan-dong, where they fell after jumping from the top of a 15-story apartment building, according to police.
Police found bottles of soju and the girls’ belongings on the rooftop of the apartment building. Footage of the CCTV inside the apartment elevator showed the three girls going up to the rooftop several hours before they were found.
Police said it was likely that the three who each lived in different cities — Busan, Daejeon and Gwangju — met through an internet website.
Two of them — 16-year-old Jung and 17-year-old Yoon were found to have previously attempted to commit suicide in August, by burning a briquette fire in a motel room in Busan.
According to investigators, Yoon had family problems, and Jung and a 19-year-old Kim had been receiving treatment for depression.
Police are investigating whether the online website which they met each other through is used to connect people who want to commit suicide.
“There are so many suicide and teenage runaway websites these days. It seems likely that the girls met through some kind of suicide website, based on the fact that each was from a different city,” said a police official.
Teenage suicide has risen as a serious social issue, as an increasing number of young people in the nation are choosing to end their lives.
According to data from the education ministry made public earlier this month, an average of 159 teenagers in the nation are taking their lives every year.
Data showed that a total of 723 elementary, middle and high school students committed suicide over the past five years, from 2008 to July 2012.
Family discord accounted for the cause of 35.4 percent of student suicides, followed by depression (16.9 percent), poor school grades (11.6 percent), relationship issues (5.9 percent), physical defects or illnesses (2.6 percent) and school bullying (1.5 percent).
“The lack of communication among family members and rising stress levels due to increased competition at schools are making more young students resort to suicide,” said Jung Teak-su, counseling director at the suicide prevention center of Life Share Association.
“It is important that schools devise programs that can provide students in despair a sense of self-pride through helping them find their talents and capabilities,” he said.