Another Saudi child dies from suicide after playing 'Blue Whale' game

Another Saudi child has fallen victim to the malicious online game called "Blue Whale."

A 13-year-old girl from Medinah has strangled herself to death at her home after playing the game, Al Arabiya reported Saturday. The young girl's death comes after a 12-year-old Saudi boy named Abdul Rahman Al-Ahmari played the game and killed himself in a similar act at the end of June.

The deadly game, which is believed to have left more than 100 people dead since its launch, asks players to complete 50 challenges over a period of 50 days. From the beginning, the challenges are dangerous and go from self harm to riskier and riskier tasks. To "win" the game, participants are given the final challenge of killing themselves.

In Saudi Arabia, the game began drawing significant attention after  Twitter user Abdullah bin Fuhaid announced the death of his cousin, Al-Ahmari, in a June 28 tweet that has since gone viral.

"My uncle's son, who is in sixth grade, recently passed away under the influence of a video game, which forced him to commit suicide by hanging himself in order to reach a new level. We belong to Allah and to him we shall return," Bin Fuhaid wrote on Twitter.

The boy's father, Saad Al-Ahmari, said the family did not notice the boy acting in any strange ways prior to the incident, adding that his son did not own a smartphone and only uses the family's computer.

"On the day of his death, he was fasting [for Ramadan] and broke his fast with us and then went to his room which is close by," the father recalled in an interview with Saudi media. Continuing, he said that later when the family was getting read to visit some other family members, they could not find the boy.

"We started searching for him around the house and at the neighbors, to realize the shocking tragedy finding him strangled with the window curtain," the grieving father said. "My son was a happy boy with a cheerful personality, performing his prayers and was involved in football and electronic games."

"Blue Whale" was first launched in Russia in 2013.

The creator of the game, Philipp Budeikin, was caught and arrested by Russian authorities. A Siberian court sentenced the 22-year-old Russian national, to three years in jail for "inciting Russian youths to kill themselves" last August.

Budeikin freely admitted in an interview that his intention was to push teenagers to suicide. 

"Yes. I truly was doing that. Don't worry, you'll understand everything. Everyone will understand", he said, according to media reports.

Several other Arab teens have fallen victims to the game. A Moroccan undergraduate student died after jumping off a building rooftop to complete the final challenge of the game earlier this year. In Algeria, at least five others died after playing the game.

If you have thoughts of suicide, reach out and share your feelings with trusted friends, relatives or medical professionals. If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, please follow this link.