What is the Milk Crate Challenge: Three people shot dead in US during controversial social trend

Three people including a teenage girl were killed in a drive-by shooting as people filmed a milk crate challenge for Tik-Tok.

Horrific footage shows a man with a cigarette climbing the stacked crates before shots can be heard ringing out.

The cameraman flees for cover as automatic gunfire sprays the area outside Linwood Public Charter School in Louisiana on Sunday afternoon.

One man can be heard shouting “Get me my gun, get me my gun!” as he looked to return fire.

Tragically, a 19-year-old woman named Paris King, KSLA reported was found dead in the back seat of a car at 6.11pm.

It is suspected the shooting was aimed at two cars parked nearby with people caught in the crossfire.

What is the Milk Crate Challenge?

The trend requires you to stack a staircase of crates. It usually starts by placing nine boxes on the ground and reducing one crate on each step until you are left with just one box on the top.

Once done you are meant to climb the staircase of crates and get down from the other side without falling. If you fall, you lose.

The challenge is actually based on a video that went viral a decade ago.

In the clip posted by the YouTube channel JoyRidersTV Bonus Footy in 2011, a man runs across a staircase made of milk crates before falling and injuring his back.

This clip appears to have inspired Facebook users Kenneth Waddell and Jordan Browne who were the first known people to do the Milk Crate Challenge in August 2021.

Doctors have warned of the dangers of the trend.

Speaking to USA Today, Dr Rajwinder Deu, a professor of orthopedic surgery at John Hopkins University said: “Everything depends on your fall, what angle you fall and what part of your body hits the ground first. This challenge doesn’t make any sense safety-wise.”

Tik Tok’s guidelines cite: “We do not allow content that depicts, promotes, normalises, or glorifies such behaviour, including amateur stunts or dangerous challenges.”

It means some videos have been taken down or will include a warning on them.

The craze comes on the heels of 2019’s Birdbox challenge based on the thriller Bird Box, which sees Sandra Bullock and her children navigate to safety wearing blindfolds.

The film’s popularity inspired fans to create the #BirdBoxChallenge, which saw them attempting everyday tasks while blindfolded.

But that challenge also resulted in injuries, with people running into walls or dangerously close to traffic - prompting a warning from Netflix.

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