Video shows terrifying moment man plunges 50ft to the ground in sick prank

A prank gone wrong landed a 26-year-old man from Russia badly bruised and beaten and needing critical care in a hospital after he was pushed off a window ledge while at a drinking party with a male friend.

According to The Sun, the incident happened on the sixth floor of a block of flats. A neighbour who lived across so happened to capture the terrifying moment in a video. The footage shows the young man sitting precariously on what appears to be a railing outside a window. He is wearing a pair of black shorts and a blue or gray T-shirt.

Then someone from inside the apartment can be seen through the window approaching him, then appears to push him off the ledge. A source said that the victim "climbed onto the windowsill of the balcony to grab some fresh air."

But his male friend, a 56-year-old who hosted the party, had planned a cruel joke on him. The insider claimed the older man decided "'to pull a prank on him' and pushed him off the ledge." The victim can be seen in the distressing video shared on local media trying desperately to hold on to a railing to save himself. There was no mention if the older man tried to even reach out his hand to help pull the victim up.

The young man eventually slipped and hit an air conditioner a floor below on his way down. He then plummeted 50 feet to the ground. He was immediately rushed to a hospital in Kogalym, Russia where he is being treated for multiple bone fractures.

Meanwhile, police are looking into the footage to determine if there was any foul play involved. According to detectives, the elderly man reportedly pleaded his innocence from what was deemed a joke gone wrong.

However, the authorities will have to establish if they will need to open a murder investigation or not based on findings from the video. Others may reportedly call it "attempted murder" or just a "drunken prank." Unfortunately, they cannot question the victim as he is said to be in a coma.