A 14-year-old model has reportedly died after falling into a coma, following claims she worked a 13-hour fashion show in Shanghai, China on Wednesday.
The Siberian Times reports Russian model Vlada Dzyuba was rushed to hospital and died on Friday 27 October after she had taken a three-month assignment in China.
Elvira Zaitseva, head of Vlada's modeling agency Perm, told the Daily Mail: 'No-one expected it to lead to such consequences.
'We are now reaping what we have sown.'
While the causes of Vlada's death are currently unknown, it is widely thought to be as a result of meningitis and exhaustion.
Vlada had been working in China for Shanghai Fashion Week, which ended October 18, but it is thought that she had been booked for a number of different jobs while in the country.
As an aside, the Daily Mail has noted that she reportedly received as little as £6.30 a day for her catwalk appearances, once her air fares, hotels, food and insurance had been taken from her earnings.
Since SFW, her other jobs have reportedly included a jewellery shoot which spanned 13 hours and then a further catwalk show, last Tuesday, at which The Guardian reports she began to feel dizzy and ill.
The Daily Mail reports that the teenager collapsed, some have said into a coma, before this latest runway job began. Although she was taken to a Shanghai hospital, she died on Friday.
Dzyuba's mother reportedly told NTV, according to the International Business Times: 'She was calling me, saying "Mama, I am so tired. I so much want to sleep." It must have been the very beginning of the illness.
'And then her temperature shot up. I didn't sleep myself and was calling her constantly, begging her to go to the hospital.'
However, accounts over what happened to the young model vary widely, with the country's official newspaper The Global Times in Beijing, disputing The Siberian Times' original coverage of the death.
The Chinese publication reports the model died of 'multiple organ dysfunction syndrome', citing medical records, but it is understood tests are still being conducted.
Yi, chief executive of ESEE Model Management, told The Global Times on Sunday: 'Dzyuba had received 16 different jobs during her stay in China.
'She had regular breaks while working. Most of her work was completed within eight hours. Her workload was moderate compared with other models.'
Zheng insisted her contract was 'legal' even though it did not specify the number of working hours.
In September, French fashion companies Kering and LVMH established a charter which forbids fashion companies, including the likes of Christian Dior, Givenchy and Gucci, from hiring girls under the age of 16 to pose as adult models.
It also stipulates that any model aged 16 to 18 will not be allowed to work between 10pm and 6am and a chaperone or guardian is mandatory.
Police are now reportedly investigating the cause of death.
