The horrific crime in Egypt’s Ismailia governorate continues to reverberate across social media due to its disturbing details, after a 13-year-old boy killed his classmate, influenced by violent scenes he had watched in a film and video games.

Photos of both the victim and the perpetrator quickly circulated, sparking widespread debate and societal calls for strict legal measures and long-term solutions to curb the recurrence of such crimes in Egypt, amid public outrage.

According to investigations, the young perpetrator lured his classmate to his apartment while his family was away, ended his life, and then used an electric saw belonging to his father, a carpenter, to dismember the body. He then scattered the body parts in different locations near the Carrefour area in Ismailia, attempting to conceal the crime.

Discovery of the child’s remains

Security authorities received a report from residents who found the remains of the unidentified child. A forensic team immediately visited the scene, set up a security cordon, and began collecting evidence. The police soon solved the mystery of the missing child from the village of Nafeesha and recovered the dismembered body parts.

Exposure to violent content

Preliminary investigations revealed that the perpetrator had been exposed to violent content on his mobile phone days before the incident, which prompted him to imitate the scenes in committing the crime.

Investigations confirmed that he cut the victim’s body into small pieces using the electric saw in multiple stages throughout the day, then placed the pieces in his school bag and disposed of them in waste areas behind a shopping center, away from the crime scene.

Authorities took the accused child to his home to reenact the crime under heavy security and also went to the Carrefour area in Ismailia, where parts of the victim’s body were found scattered in different locations.

Investigators confirmed that the boy attempted to replicate violent scenes he had seen in films and video games, and he admitted that he carried out the crime exactly as he had witnessed.

The public prosecutor ordered the 13-year-old to be detained for 15 days pending investigations and decided to present him to a specialized committee to assess his psychological and mental state at the time of the crime.