Two children, in separate incidents, were discovered dead in their bedrooms on Monday. Both were found hanging with scarves around their necks.

"/> Two children, in separate incidents, were discovered dead in their bedrooms on Monday. Both were found hanging with scarves around their necks.

" />
Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

DEATH

Two children die from scarf strangling

Two children, in separate incidents, were discovered dead in their bedrooms on Monday. Both were found hanging with scarves around their necks.

Published: 28 February 2012 09:03 CET

The death of a seven-year-old girl was discovered on Monday morning in the southern village of Sanilhac (Gard).

The girl’s mother went to her bedroom at 7.30am to find her hanging from her bunk bed with a scarf around her neck, reported regional newspaper Midi Libre.

The girl was last seen alive the night before when her father read her a story at around 10.30pm. She had reportedly been having trouble sleeping.

The girl was due to go back to school on Monday, after a two-week holiday, although she was not believed to be worried about her return. 

A second child was discovered dead in the southern Paris suburb of Villejuif on Monday.

The 12-year-old boy was also found hanging with a scarf around his neck.

Police were investigating both cases to discover whether they were accidents or incidents of the dangerous but popular “fainting game”.

The “jeu du foulard”, as it is known in France, involves strangulation to achieve a ‘high’ without drugs or alcohol.

22 children are believed to have died in France from this practice in 2010.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

NORWAY

Body found in Oslo flat nine years after death

A man lay dead in his flat for nine years before being discovered in December, police in Oslo have said.

Published: 9 April 2021 11:20 CEST
Body found in Oslo flat nine years after death
Photo by pichet wong from Pexels

The man, who was in his sixties, had been married more than once and also had children, national broadcaster NRK reports.

His name has been kept anonymous. According to neighbours he liked to keep to himself and when they didn’t see him, they thought he had moved or been taken to assisted living.

“Based on the details we have, it is obviously a person who has chosen to have little contact with others,” Grethe Lien Metild, chief of Oslo Police District, told NRK.

His body was discovered when a caretaker for the building he was living in requested police open the apartment so he could carry out his work.

“We have thought it about a lot, my colleagues and people who have worked with this for many years. This is a special case, and it makes us ask questions about how it could happen,” Metild said.

Police believe the man died in April 2011, based on a carton of milk and a letter that were found in his apartment. An autopsy has shown he died of natural causes.

READ ALSO: Immigrants in Norway more likely to be affected by loneliness

His pension was suspended in 2018 when the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV) could not get in touch with him, but his bills were still paid out of his bank account and suspended pension fund.

Arne Krokan, a professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, said the man’s death would have unlikely gone unnoticed for so long if he had died 30 years ago.

“In a way, it is the price we have paid to get digital services,” he said to NRK.

Last year 27 people were found in Oslo, Asker or Bærum seven days or more after dying. The year before the number was 32 people. Of these, one was dead for almost seven months before being discovered.

SHOW COMMENTS