A SCHOOL has issued a warning to parents about a potentially deadly social media game which is sweeping the country.

The school has written to parents about the Blue Whale Game - a set of daily 'tasks' the game master posts on social media for 50 days, including self harm.

Last month a national newspaper published a report suggesting that players are given a final task of killing themselves.

David Wright, headteacher at Woodlands School in Basildon, Essex, wrote: "We have discovered a game through the police that we feel you should be aware of.

"As you already know from my previous letters, we have a duty of care for our pupils and are striving to do all we can to ensure that you are given the latest information to help safeguard our young people.

"It is called The Blue Whale Game and is played via many social media platforms. Players are given a master who controls them for 50 days and each day they are given a task to complete.

"One task might be to wake up in the middle of the night and they steadily escalate with another take being for them to scratch a blue whale somewhere on their body.

"On the 50th day the masters behind the game instruct the young people to commit suicide and sadly across the world some have done this."