A 19-year-old man has committed suicide live on the internet encouraged by others who were watching, according to reports. The teenager, named as Abraham K Biggs, from Broward County, Florida, took an overdose of pills while broadcasting himself on Justin.tv, a live video streaming website.

On a chat forum he told others he was going to commit suicide and posted a suicide note on another forum before taking the pills and turning on his webcam. The 19-year-old lay on his bed and only after several hours of no movement did others begin to take him seriously. With the video still running, forum members managed to contact the local police who eventually broke down the door, found the body and switched off the camera. Up to 1,500 people were viewing the feed, according to one report. On Wednesday he went to the bodybuilding.com forum and detailed the amount of drugs he was going to take. The moderators of the forum reportedly did not take him seriously because of his past threats and other forum members encouraged him to carry out his threat.

Mr Biggs then posted his suicide note, where he said he had hurt other people and hated himself for being a failure. “I am an a@#hole. I have let everyone down and I feel as though I will never change or never improve. I am in love with a girl and I know that I am not good enough for her,” he wrote.

As he lay motionless on the bed after taking the pills, many forum members continued to insult him, believing that it was staged.

I can well imagine the comments this was generating.