Italian teen dies on video call with best friend after phone falls in bath

Maria Antoinetta Cutillo.

An Italian teenager died while on a video call with her best friend after her phone reportedly fell into the bath.

16-year-old Maria Antoinetta Cutillo from Avellino was speaking to her pal while the device was connected to a charger that was plugged into the socket, the Daily Express reported.

Local media reported that her parents were not at home at the time, leaving her friend the only one to hear her screams.

While her precise cause of death has not been determined, the young woman on the other end of the line has shared the harrowing experience.

The friend, Fabi, reportedly identified herself on TikTok and recounted what she saw that day.

“You flew to heaven my love, you left screaming my name during a video call. I will never ever forget that moment,” she said.

“I have your voice echoing in my head as you screamed my name, I have the scene in front of my eyes, I have your big green eyes in front of me, I have your laugh in mind.”

The tragic case is the latest in a series of preventable deaths related to cellphone use in the bath.

In 2021, a 13-year-old girl in France died after dropping her cellphone into the bath, causing an electric shock which eventually killed her.

The phone had been plugged into a charger at the time it dropped into the water.

The young teen was initially revived after paramedics rushed to her home in the French city of Macon and she remained in a coma and clung to life for days at the university hospital in Lyon before succumbing to her injuries.

The young girl’s grieving mother went public with a warning to other teenagers, saying: “This must be a warning to other teenagers, because they all have their phones implanted in their hands, so to speak.

“We really have to insist: no phones in bathtubs because it can end so dramatically.”