PUBG addiction claims teenage boy's life

A teenage boy allegedly died of cardiac arrest while playing Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG), on his smartphone for six hours at a stretch, as he became unresponsive after shouting ‘blast it, blast it”.

The incident took place in Neemuch town of India’s Madhya Pradesh on May 28, where a 16-year-old boy identified as Furkan Qureshi, NDTV quoted his father Haroon Rasheed Qureshi.

Mr Qureshi said that his family had come to Neemuch to attend a marriage ceremony. He added that Furkan became unresponsive on the day while playing the online game on his smartphone after he ‘shouted blast it, blast it’.

“He was a very active lad. My son was so engrossed in PUBG game that he played it from Sunday evening to early hours of Monday.

“He slept for a few hours and after getting up had his breakfast and then played the game for six hours at a stretch,” Haroon Qureshi said.

“Furkan shouted ‘blast it, blast it’ after his character in the game lost a battle,” he said.

The teenager was rushed to a hospital after he became unresponsive while playing the game, but could not be resuscitated.

Local police said that the department has not launched an investigation into the incident as Furkan’s family did not file any complaint so far.

The reports said that PUBG has been banned by the police in some cities of Gujarat on ground that it leads to violent behaviour among children and youth.

On April 12, Nepal had banned the hugely popular but brutal online game “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds” over concerns about its impact on children.

In the multiplayer game, commonly known as PUBG, players parachute onto an island and scavenge for weapons and equipment to kill others and survive. The last player or team standing wins.

Nepal’s telecommunication authority issued a circular to all internet service providers on Thursday to block PUBG on instruction from the Kathmandu district court.

“We sought an order from the court to ban PUBG after floods of complaints from parents, guardians and school organisations to block the game citing psychological impact on teenagers and students,” senior police official Dhiraj Pratap Singh told AFP.

The survival-themed battle game, made by South Korean firm Bluehole Inc, has been downloaded more than 100 million times around the world since it was launched in 2017.

‘Blast it, blast it': PUBG addiction claims teenage boy's life