Teenager drowns after riding bike into water as fears grow over latest Facebook craze

Police have warned of the dangers of a new Facebook craze which sees people throwing themselves face first into water.

Known as a 'l’eau ou au resto' - which is French for "into the water or to the restaurant" - the viral challenge sees people daring each other to hurl themselves into the water fully clothed or pay for a meal at a restaurant.

But now authorities are urging people to show they are “more intelligent” after a 19-year-old man who rode his bike off the edge of the quayside in Beganne, France, drowned while being filmed by a friend.  

Writing on Facebook police said: “Don’t be influenced by a stupid phenomenon of the moment.”

There are fears that the craze will next sweep the UK in the same way as online drinking game Neknominate, which claimed several lives.One features a young man who swigs from a bottle of beer before riding a bike down a ramp and into the canal.

In another, a larger middle aged man in a leopard print scarf and white pork pie hat slips on a concrete ramp before he even makes it to the water, cracking his head off the floor.

A young boy wearing a pink bra experiences the same fate in another clip, also landing flat on his back on a slipway.

In another similarly disastrous entry, a woman is seen tottering on the water’s edge in high heels.

As she goes to jump she loses her footing and bangs her legs on the edge of the boards she is trying to dive off.

Meanwhile in America, a similar craze is already claiming casualties.

Cold Water Challenge dares people to jump into cold water or donate cash to charity.

A teenager from Wisconsin damaged her knee while an Illinois student suffered a fractured ankle.