A 16-year-old high school student nearly drowned in a river here after a group of "friends" pulled his legs and dunked him under the water while filming the scene, police said.

At around 4:40 p.m. on July 8, emergency services received a call from a female high school student saying that a boy had "drowned" in the Mino River in the prefectural city of Saito. The boy, a 16-year-old student at a local private high school, was pulled out from the river unconscious.

While waiting for an ambulance to arrive, the boy's acquaintances conducted heart massage on him under the telephone guidance of an emergency worker, as a result of which the boy restored his breathing, though he remained unconscious. The teen was taken by helicopter to a hospital in the capital city of Miyazaki for treatment.