Dangerous TikTok trend exposed after teen plunges to his death

DAILYMAIL.COM • 6h ago

By MAISY RAE – NEWS REPORTER 05:28 09 Oct 2026, updated 05:42 09 Oct 2026

A dangerous TikTok trend that sees teenagers sneak into abandoned and off-limits buildings to film their adventures has been thrust into the spotlight after a 17-year-old boy plunged 30 metres to his death in Sydney.

It’s understood the boy was balancing on a railing before plunging to the street below. He suffered critical injuries and died at the scene.

Just days after the tragedy, a group of teenage girls were spotted exploring Hibernian House, the graffiti-covered creative arts hub in Surry Hills where the boy died.

The teenage girls told Daily Mail they had entered the building to take photos after seeing videos of it on TikTok, and had no idea that a boy had fallen to his death there just days earlier.

A man who has an office in the building said it was not unusual to see teenagers wandering through its gritty, graffiti-covered corridors, particularly during the school holidays, despite access being restricted.

‘Somehow they find their way into the building… I know why, it’s industrial, it has a lot of character,’ he told the Daily Mail.

‘We just tell them to stay off the roof and that it’s unsafe.’

The building has also gained attention online, with TikTok videos showing young people exploring its corridors and reviews describing it as a ‘sick location for photoshoots’ and a place to chill out.

Its popularity comes amid a broader social media trend known as ‘urban exploring’ or ‘urbex’, which sees young people venture into abandoned, unusual or off-limits buildings to film their adventures and share them on TikTok.

The dangers of urban exploring have been highlighted by a string of recent deaths in the United States.

In August, a 17-year-old boy fell to his death while exploring an abandoned 45-storey skyscraper with friends in New Orleans.

Just weeks later, a 15-year-old boy plunged 30 metres to his death from a disused industrial tower in Illinois while exploring with friends.

Earlier that month, a 16-year-old girl died after falling through the roof of an abandoned apartment complex in Florida while with friends.

The circumstances bear eerie similarities to the tragedy in Sydney.

CCTV footage captured inside Hibernian House on Tuesday shows a group of boys wearing backpacks as they enter the building’s top floor in the moments leading up to the tragedy.

Only two were captured on camera leaving moments later.

‘Ambulance! You have to get down here now, I think he died,’ one boy can be heard saying during a Triple 0 call.

Police were later seen on CCTV footage examining the scene with flashlights.

His two friends were uninjured but later treated for shock.

Officers are treating his death as suspected misadventure.

When asked about the boy’s death, many of the building’s tenants said they’d only heard about it through news reports, and that they hadn’t been contacted by police.

The building, which was erected in the 1920s, served as the headquarters for the Irish Hibernian Australasian Catholic Benefit Society, and has hosted a colourful array of businesses over its century-long history from brothels, to clothing factories, jazz clubs and now underground raves.

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