Shocking Footage: Video Catches Teenage Boy Jumping To His Death [Watch]

On Thursday, Mar. 13, surveillance cameras at a Chinese high school reportedly captured the final moments of a teenage boy’s life.

According to Opposing Views, Xiao Zhen committed suicide by jumping to his death out of a classroom window. The publication reports that he was chronically stressed due to the academic pressures of college entrance exams.

The jaw-dropping one-minute video opens to a classroom filled with students who appear to be having a relatively normal day at school. Zhen is seated in a desk at the lower right end of the classroom. Then, suddenly he stands from his desk and runs deftly toward the window ledge and jumps out.

The actual jump cannot be seen clearly due to the angle of the surveillance camera. However, the alarmed reaction of his fellow classmates are a clear sign of trepidation. Once he jumps, the other students can be seen running toward the window to see what happened. They can also be seen panicking, which suggests that Zhen did, indeed, attempt to commit suicide.

On Wednesday, Mar. 19, the video was uploaded to LiveLeak.comand has since gone viral, garnering more than 240,000 views in less than 24 hours. “High school student Xiao Zhen leaps to his death from a window in the middle of class,” the description for the video reads. “It is believed this happened due to pressure of preparing for college entrance exams.”

Further details about the fatal incident are relatively scant. A number of news outlets have also stated that the authenticity of the footage cannot be confirmed. However, it was also said that Zhen’s actions mirror those of a growing trend in China. Unfortunately, teenage suicide in China is not uncommon. Suicide is one of the leading causes of death among Chinese youth as a result of the intense pressure to excel academically.

Image via Bing