Cold Water Challenge: German Man Dies After Friend Tried to Drench Him in Water With Digger

A man in Germany has been killed and five others were injured after taking part in a Cold Water Challenge – where people douse themselves in cold water and film it to upload online.

The internet craze has become increasingly popular in recent months and several people have died as a result.

Participants are supposed to submerge themselves in cold water or have a bucket of ice water poured on them. They then nominate another person to take a challenge and make a donation to charity. However, in a lot of the challenges, alcohol is involved.

The 34-year-old German man had been with his friends in Isselburg, North Rhine-Westphalia. He had been drinking with a group of friends in a corn field when one suggested using a digger to soak the rest with cold water.

The digger owner filled up the shovel with 2,000 litres of water and drove it over to where the group was. But after raising the shovel up to six feet, it lost balance and fell forward, crushing the men.

Of the five other men who were injured, four were taken to hospital.

There have been an increasing number of deaths related to Cold Water Challenges. In New Zealand in July, a man died from a heart attack after a night of heavy drinking.

Willis Tepania, 40, took an ice challenge then drank a large quantity of bourbon in just a few minutes. He had a heart attack five hours later.

Two months earlier in Minnesota, US, 16-year-old Davis Colley died after jumping into Eagle Lake for the challenge. His body was found by police a few hours later.