Three people have been killed at an Instagram influencer’s party in Moscow, Russia, after they jumped into a swimming pool that dry ice was poured into to create a visual effect.
Instagram influencer Yekaterina Didenko was celebrating her 29th birthday at an indoor pool complex, when partygoers poured 55lbs of dry ice into the water in the pool while trying to create a visual effect.
Unfortunately for the partygoers, dry ice is frozen carbon dioxide, which is non-toxic in low levels, but built-up amounts in low-ventilated areas can displace the oxygen and have fatal consequences.
As the human body inhales carbon dioxide rather than oxygen, symptoms such as rapid heart rate, clumsiness and fatigue quickly set in, followed by nausea, vomiting, collapse, convulsions, coma and death. Symptoms progress much quicker if the body exerts physical effort, such as thrashing about in a pool.
A video of the ill-advised stunt was shared online. It shows partygoers obliviously jumping to their deaths into the poisonous pool, including the influencer’s own 32-year-old husband, Valentin Didenko.
The video began with her friends wearing white coveralls and goggles, squealing with excitement as they tip a cooler full of the dry ice into the pool. Immediately, the surface of the water is covered in a thick white vapor, and guests begin jumping into it.
The first person in the pool is seen flailing his arms but others have no idea the danger he is in as they all continue making their way into the pool before the video ends.
Didenko, a mother-of two, is a qualified pharmacist who shares medicine money-saving tips on Instagram. She later took to the platform to tell her over 1.5 million fans that her husband had been rushed to hospital.
Several partygoers were hospitalized after the incident, while three were confirmed dead.
The Russian Investigative Committee has reportedly opened a criminal investigation.
Watch the video below.
