French children risk lives in strangling game

Nicolas Cochet, 14, had gone to bed early in order to get plenty of sleep for the next day. He had even ironed his clothes and left them in a neat pile in the living room.

They were in the same place at 6.20 the next morning when his mother found him. He was still dangling by the judo belt with which he had accidentally strangled himself to death.

Nicolas was one of a growing number of French victims of le jeu du foulard, or "the scarf game". The practice involves denying the brain oxygen through voluntary strangulation. It often leaves no visible mark.

Typically, in the presence of a group of friends, a child will hold their breath, before strangling themselves, often with a scarf or chord of some sort, or sometimes with their own bare hands. The child then passes out and descends into convulsions, which, according to Nicolas' mother, Françoise Cochet "amuse the group".

The French education minister, Xavier Darcos, has now ordered an information campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of the "game". Mme Cochet, founder of a French support group, Apeas (the Association of Parents of Child Victims of Strangulation) has created an information pack to explain to parents and children that "it is not a game at all".

Visit www.jeudufoulard.com for more information.