'Neknomination': Police investigate second death from online drinking craze

Police are investigating the death of a man locally known as Stephen Brooks after the 'sudden and unexplained' death of a man in Cardiff

Stephen Brooks is thought to have taken part in a neknomination challenge before he died. (Facebook/Andrew Price)

Police are investigating whether a Welsh man may be the second Briton to die after taking part in a Neknomination challenge.

The man, named locally as Stephen Brooks, died in “sudden and unexplained” circumstances in the early hours of Sunday morning, The Mirror has reported.

Police and ambulance teams were called to a property in Rumney, in the east of Cardiff, to tend to a man who had collapsed.

Jack Stephens, a Twitter user who apparently knew Mr Brooks, posted on the social media website: “Survives an axe in the head and dies over a poxy drink. RIP Brooksy true Rumney soldier.”

The game that Mr Brooks is alleged to have taken part in has become increasingly dangerous. ‘Contestants’ are filmed drinking and then completing challenges, which are posted on social media websites, raising the stakes with each time.

For his challenge, Mr Brooks reportedly drank three quarters of a litre of vodka in under a minute at a party on Sunday night, according to the Evening Standard.

Tributes to the 29 year-old have been posted on the "R.I.P. Stephen ‘BROOKSY’ Brooks" Facebook page, which currently has 906 members.

One user Ceri Hutcheon said: “Thoughts go out to family and friends and everyone who has been hugly shatteted by such devastating news..r.i.p brookes.... sleep tight fella [sic]”

Mr Brooks is reportedly the second British person to have died during the challenge, after 20-year-old Isaac Richardson died in the early hours of Saturday morning after downing a lethal 1.5 litre cocktail of wine, whisky, lager and vodka.

The incidents follow two deaths in Ireland that were linked to the game in January.