Blue Whale game victim recounts harrowing experience, says don't try it

Karaikal: A 22-year-old man in Puducherry, rescued from the Blue Whale suicide challenge before he could get sucked in deeper, said on Wednesday that it was an "agonizing experience" a death trap that he could not extricate himself from even though he wanted to.

In the early hours of Tuesday, Alexander was about to carve the notorious Blue Whale motif into his arm when a police team barged into his home in Karaikal. The final challenge - suicide - was not far at that point.

"It is a virtual death trap. You will go through an agonising experience. Even those who seek adventures will be mentally affected," he warned, explaining that he wanted everyone to know well enough to stay away from the game. He spoke to the media with senior police officer Vamseedhar Reddy by his side.

Alexander said he received a link to the Blue Whale game two weeks ago, on a WhatsApp group formed by his colleagues. He started playing the game when he came to his hometown Neravy on leave. Such was his addiction, that he never returned to Chennai to rejoin work.

"The tasks given by the admin are to be completed only after 2 AM every day. First few days went into posting personal details and photographs, which were collected by the blue whale admin," he added.

A few days back, Alexander was asked to visit a nearby graveyard at midnight and take a selfie and post it online.

"I went to the Akkaraivattam graveyard around midnight, took a selfie and posted it. Every day, I had to watch horror movies alone, as the idea was to make victims shun fear," he said.

"I avoided talking to people at home and remained confined to my room. It was mentally taxing," he said.

Fortunately, his brother Ajith, who noticed behavioural changes in him informed the police, who visited his residence at 4 am on Tuesday and rescued Alexander as he was about to draw the image of a fish with a knife on his arm.

Stating that he was stable now following the counselling sessions, Alexander appealed to fellow youths to never try the game.

There has been a spurt of Blue Whale cases in India in the past few weeks and at least five deaths have been linked to it.