Teen vlogger had to be rescued after a YouTube dare goes wrong

A daredevil vlogger known as “Carnage” has admitted to being a little hasty in accepting a challenge from one of his subscribers.

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Shah Faisal Shinwari, 17, jumped off London’s Tower Bridge to celebrate reaching 25,000 followers. But it didn’t exactly go to plan. The prankster said when he hit the water 40 feet below he was unable to move against the strong current, swallowed a lot of water and thought he was going to die.

After he almost drowned he was lifted to safety by the RNLI, who have blasted his stunt. He was taken to St. Thomas’ hospital for treatment after the dirty Thames water caused an infection.

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Once recovered Shah posted the footage to his YouTube channel with the following message:

“Here is an unedited version of me jumping off London’s famous Tower Bridge into the River Thames. It originally was a dare from one of my subscribers, and I attempted it as I like doing crazy s**t. This was later very regretted by me and i realized it was the stupidest idea ever. Thanks for watching!” (sic)

https://youtube.com/watch?v=zkWWtDxLNZc
Video: Carnage/YouTube

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“I was dared by one of my YouTube subscribers to do this stunt and I usually do crazy stunts so I thought why not. Little did I know it would get this out of control,” Shah Faisel told Metro.co.uk. “I got lucky, I survived. Please don’t attempt this.”

Tony Wafer, RNLI community safety manager, gave the following warning: “As a lifesaving organisation that works on the Thames in London, we are extremely disappointed that this young man chose to risk his life in this way. He was extremely lucky that the outcome wasn’t more serious. We’re glad that this young man regrets his actions, however we would strongly discourage anyone from doing anything like this. Jumping into the Thames from a bridge is extremely dangerous — the shock of cold water make (sic) it very difficult to swim and strong currents can rapidly sweep people away.”

The stunt has had one advantage, of course — Shah Faisel is sure to get lots more subscribers after all this attention. Let’s hope he’s learnt what not to do to celebrate by the time he reaches his next milestone.