Youth killed while posing with pistol for TikTok video

A teenager was shot dead 'accidentally' when he and his relatives were posing for a TikTok video in Maharashtra's Ahmednagar district, police said Thursday.

Pratik Wadekar (17) died on the spot during the incident which took place in the temple town of Shirdi Wednesday evening.

Pratik and his relatives Sunny Pawar (20), Nitin Wadekar (27), an 11-year-old boy and another young man were in Shirdi for the last rituals of a family member, police said.

While sitting in their hotel room, they decided to shoot a video on mobile phone by posing with a country-made pistol one of Pratik's relatives had brought, and upload it on popular video-sharing app TikTok.

The trigger of the pistol was accidentally pressed and the bullet hit Pratik, said inspector Anil Katke of Shirdi police station.

As he collapsed, others ran out of the room, and when the hotel staff, alerted by the gunshot, tried to stop them, one of them allegedly threatened to open fire and fled, the police officer added.

Police took Pratik to the government hospital where he was declared dead before admission, inspector Katke said.

A case was registered under IPC sections 302 (murder) and 307 (attempt to murder), and Sunny Pawar and Nitin Wadekar were arrested while another relative was yet to be traced. The fourth accused is a minor.

Pawar and Wadekar allegedly told police that the pistol went off when they were shooting a video. Further probe is on, inspector Katke said.