Teen Commits Suicide After Watching Uchiha Itachi Die

The British tabloid newspaper Daily Mail reported on Friday that a 14-year-old Russian boy committed suicide after seeing a character in the NarutoNaruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 DLC Bonus Costumes. Read more ... » Shippūden anime die. According to the paper, Leonid Hmelev leapt more than 100 feet (30 meters) from an apartment building and died instantly.

The newspaper reported that Hmelev was devastated after seeing the death of the character Uchiha Itachi. (The death first appeared in the original Naruto manga in Weekly Shonen JumpVote for the Cast of Shonen Jump Project Versus J PS3 and PS Vita Game. Read more ... » magazine in 2008.) Daily Mail said that Hmelev left a message about “planning an ending” on a social networking site.

After his parents reported him missingOrlando Anime Club Member Lisa Smith Reported Missing. Read more ... », they and their neighbors searched for him and found his body two days later on November 1. The Daily Mail reported that his 38-year-old father Ivan said, “I always told him he spent too much time watching the TV – he didn’t know what was reality and what was fiction anymore.”

UNICEF and The New York Times reports that Russia has the third highest rate — 22 per 100,000 — of teenage suicide after Belarus and Kazakhstan.

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