A man has died after being punched in the chest in a new internet fad. Tommy Main, 23, died in hospital after he was punched by a friend in a so-called ‘Punch4Punch’ challenge, where people film themselves punching each other.
The Independent reports that police have arrested a 20-year-old man who has been bailed until September. They are treating his death as “unexplained” and say the post-mortem could take up to six weeks.
Tributes have poured in for Mr Main, who also had a young daughter, with friends and family posting on his Facebook profile. His brother, Roy, condemned the people who had filmed the incident on their phones.
“I’m hurting so bad I don’t think I’ll ever be the same again,” he wrote, adding: “For the people at the party who call yourselves friends, you should have stopped it, not try and film it. I hope you can’t sleep.”
Another brother, Ben, added: “I can’t believe my little brother has lost his life. He was punched in the heart and it stopped beating. He died instantly.
“He’s got a little girl and she doesn’t know yet. How do you tell a three-year-old her dad is dead? She doesn’t even know what it means.”
The Punch4Punch craze started in America and involves young men filming themselves exchanging blows with friends. Dozens of videos of people indulging in the craze can be found on social media.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “Police were called by London Ambulance Service at 12:44 am on Sunday to a residential address in The Nursery, Erith, to reports of a man collapsed.
“The 23-year-old man was taken by London Ambulance Service to a South London Hospital in a critical condition. He died in hospital a short while later.”