Dangerous new viral online challenge in China: “those two zip ties might have killed him”

Across social media from time to time new trends and challenges go viral, some of them silly and in good fun, others that can put people’s lives in danger. One that is spreading in China known as the “zip tie escape challenge” falls into the latter category.

Essentially, the challenge involves tying up one’s ankles and wrists with nylon zip ties and then trying to get free. The craze got going with people imitating viral “how to escape” survival videos on Chinese social media according to South China Morning Post.

The copycat videos getting the most views are of those who fail to get out of the predicament they’ve gotten themselves into. In one reported recent case from Guangzhou, a man took it to the extreme and nearly died.

Firefighter Liu Junjie told South China Morning Post:“If he struggled a bit more, or if we arrived later than we did, those two zip ties might have killed him.” Firefighters were called to the scene after a delivery man heard the person screaming for help as he passed by.

Liu could not explain how the man had managed to bind himself as he did on his own, but they found him wrapped in a blanket, which in turn was covered tightly in a fish net, as well as being tied up in zip ties from his ankles to his neck. The two they found around his neck could have resulted in his death.

Authorities made the man’s case public in order to raise public awareness to deter other people from trying the zip tie challenge themselves lest they wish to win a Darwin Award.

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