Seven people killed themselves last year after posting suicidal messages on the Internet, the National Police Agency said Thursday.
They were among 176 people traced by police during 2008 based on information from Internet providers. The number was up 71 from the year before.
Three of the people were saved by police officers who arrived on the scene and 92 people were otherwise talked out of killing themselves.
Seventy-four of the postings turned out to be false alarms.
Police were unable to identify the authors of another 20 messages.
For the year, the police requested that Internet providers disclose information on 180 messages, up 59 from 2007 — 112 posted on online message boards, 60 via e-mail and eight via online chat sites.
Police received 15 suicidal messages directly, 92 messages that were forwarded by the general public, 47 messages from Net site managers and eight messages from the Internet Hotline Center, an entity the NPA operates indirectly.