Fears that Siberian suicides were 'manipulated by sinister social media masterminds'

The tragic deaths of three teenage girls in recent days, and a number of attempted suicides, are being investigated  

Two school girls Yulia Konstantinova, 15, and Veronika Volkova, 16, fell to their deaths on Sunday from the roof of a 14 storey apartment block in Ust-Ilimsk, Irkutsk region.

Today a girl identified as Ekaterina, 15, was critically injured after falling onto snowy ground from a fifth floor flat in Krasnoyarsk. Two days earlier, a 14 year old girl from Chita died when she threw herself under a commuter train. 

State investigators are probing whether a controversial web 'suicide game' known as 'Blue Whale' influenced the girls. 

Yulia left a note saying 'End' on her social page and earlier she had posted a picture with blue whale, seen as a symbol of a social media movement encouraging children to take their own lives. 

Her friend Veronika wrote: 'Sense is lost... End.'.She regularly posted sad messages such as: 'Do you feel that gradually you become useless?' or 'I'm just a ghost'. 

Two teenage boys were detained by police at the scene after allegedly filming the double suicide, it was reported. The Russian Investigative Committee has opened a probe on 'incitement to suicide' regarding the pair's death. 

'Investigators checked the scene, the homes of the minors, and interviewed relatives and friends of the victims, to establish the motives,' said a statement. 'Particular attention during the investigation of the criminal case will be given to the study of their social contacts on the Internet.'

In Krasnoyarsk, law enforcement  recently opened three criminal cases of incitement to suicide involving  schoolgirls via the groups in social media. In all three cases these girls were rescued. 

One local school director told police he had received an anonymous call saying a student had joined a 'group of death' and planned soon to kill herself. 

The police identified the girl who explained that had  had joined a 'game' in social media network 'Vkontakte', and had been given 'tasks' by the administrator of the group.

She was told to cut certain words on her hands and search for a high-rise building, from which she could jump. She rejected the demands, but others appear to have obeyed them. 

In the Chita case, transport police confirmed that the so-called suicide game 'Blue Whale' is seen as a possible 'cause of death'. A second girl had made plans to kill herself with the dead teenager, but changed her mind at the last moment, it was reported. 

It is claimed teenagers are urged to use a knife to make the shape of a whale on their wrist or leg, say Russian reports. 

They are also urged to watch horror movies all day, and to wake themselves at 4.20 am, all steps leading up to demands to take their own lives on the 50th day being in the game. 

There was concern last year when there were fears that the sinister masterminds could be behind at least 130 suicides across Russia. 

After the arrest of a supposed ringleader named as Phillip Budeikin, 21, there was a reduction in cases, but now there is major new concern of vulnerable teenagers being swayed by the barbaric death accounts. 

Budeikin has been charged with organising  a chain of eight 'suicidal groups' between 2013 and 2016 which promote suicides. As a result 15 teenagers committed suicide, and another 5 were rescued last moment, according to the case against him. 

Russian investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta reported last year: 'We have counted 130 suicides of children that took place between Novermber 2015 to April 2016.

'Almost all these children were members of the same internet groups and lived in good, happy families.'