Love Island star Sherif Lanre has been the victim of a sick death hoax after a troll claimed he passed away in a fire.
The 20-year-old chef, who was pulled from the villa by producers, found his Instagram account filled with messages of condolence as fans paid tribute to him.
The post from the sick troll that prompted a slew of 'RIP' messages read: "rip my boy sherif. my man has f***ing died in a house fire After he left the Hot water tap on and spent the last hours of his life suffering horribly.
"hope his family are ok after this shocking news, rip in peace my bro #blessupmyg."
Just in case this wasn't bad enough, the troll also offered fans of Sherif the chance to win a gift card if they tagged and followed the account.
The troll continued: "if we can all pay our upmost respects by going onto his account @sherif_lanre and commenting how sad we are. (everyone make sure to follow, like and tag your freinds for a gift card giveaway) #loveisland #dead #freeclout."
As people left their messages of support, a spokesperson for Sherif confirmed that the post was a sick hoax.
Sherif was the first to leave the Love Island villa, after being one of the original islanders.
He only lasted nine days before show bosses asked him to leave following an incident with Molly-Mae Hague.
At the time, a Love Island spokesperson: "After breaking the villa rules Sherif had conversations with the producers and it was mutually agreed that he would leave the Love Island villa."
Sherif for his part, agreed that he had flaunted the rules of the ITV2 dating show.
He said: "In a case of poor judgement, I broke the villa rules and as a result agreed with the producers that it was best for me to leave the villa.
"I regret that I didn’t conduct myself in the right way and, as a 20 year old guy, it’s something I know I will take on board and learn from.
"I really enjoyed my time in the villa and look forward to catching up with everyone on the outside."
*Love Island airs all week at 9pm on ITV2.
