ISLAMABAD: An 18-year-old TikTok user accidentally shot himself in the leg on Tuesday while filming a video for the popular short-video platform, local media reported.
The incident occurred in Lahore’s EME society where Ghulamullah shot himself in the leg with a gun that he borrowed from a security guard to film a TikTok video, according to Samaa.tv.
“The TikToker was under treatment, but his condition was out of danger by the doctors,” Samaa.tv said.
Parents and authorities in Pakistan and around the globe have expressed concern about accidents that have been reported among young users of the video app.
TikTok users in Pakistan have, over the past couple of years, died in various accidents while shooting videos. Some of them fell from rooftops, accidentally shot themselves, or were hit by trains.
Last year, a 19-year-old boy from Pakistan’s northwestern Swat valley died accidentally as he pretended to shoot himself while filming a TikTok video.
Earlier this year, two Pakistani TikTok stars got into trouble with authorities after they started forest fires as backdrops for their short videos.
TikTok has been criticized for not keeping a regulatory check on unsafe challenges that have caused deaths around the world. The most notorious of these was the “Blackout Challenge” which encouraged people to hold their breath or strangulate themselves till they passed out.
With 12.5 million videos removed, Pakistan ranks second in the world for the largest number of videos taken down from the TikTok platform over violations of community guidelines during the first quarter of 2022.
