A Hong Kong businessman hangs himself in a toilet, a Bangkok stockbroker jumps from a high-rise apartment block, a Japanese couple swallow suicide pills.
These are examples of an outbreak of suicides in south-east Asia blamed on the financial crisis which has convulsed the region.
The case of the Hong Kong businessman was typical.
Mr Yu Shek-sau (45), a clothing merchant, was found hanged in a restaurant toilet on January 7th.
A brokerage statement demanding repayment of £100,000 was found on his body, with a suicide note on the back.
Suicides appear to be on the rise in the former British colony where stock values have plummeted.
Last Wednesday a taxi-driver, Mr Cheung Man-mag (43), hanged himself from the roof of a Quarry Bay residential block after losing about £45,000 on the stock market.
He lived with his wife and children in a 29th-floor flat.
The day before a 37-year-old Hong Kong housewife was found by her 14-year-old son hanging from a nylon rope in her kitchen.
Ms Cheung Chun-lin's taxidriver husband told police that she had been depressed because of heavy losses on the stock market.
The list keeps growing.
On January 14th Mr Ng Kawing (22) jumped to his death from a 28th-floor flat after telling friends he had financial problems.
Suicide prevention centres in Hong Kong are counselling about 20 people a month, and the Samaritans are taking 17 to 20 calls a month since November from people with financial woes.
In Thailand the number of suicides has doubled since the economic boom burst six months ago, according to government officials.
One 25-year-old broker, facing a salary cut and large debts, smoked a final cigarette and then jumped to his death from a Bangkok high-rise, and a former provincial governor shot himself in a police station lavatory after his property business went bankrupt.
The Thailand Public Health Ministry said admissions to mental health clinics had climbed 30 per cent over the past six months as Thais saw their fortunes evaporate and debts soar.
"We think there are many we do not know of, as there is such a big stigma attached to suicide," said a government psychiatrist.
The number of suicides per 100,000 people has climbed from five to eight since the start of the crisis.
Dr Yongyudh Wongphiromsarn said: "Usually not more than 2 per cent of the population contemplate suicide. Now it has increased to 4 per cent. In only six months the country's mental health situation has deteriorated rapidly."
A poll taken two weeks ago of 1,186 people in Bangkok found that 17 per cent of those surveyed were contemplating suicide.
In South Korea, a Confucian society which equates failure with dishonour, there has also been an epidemic of suicides, with at least one South Korean businessman committing suicide every day, according to the Korean Federation of Small Business.
It said the number of business-related suicides in 1997 exceeded 400 as bankruptcies increased to a record 15,000 for the year.
Not only business people are taking their lives in despair.
A South Korean mother who could not afford the cost of her 26-year-old son's education abroad killed herself on January 7th after the South Korean currency plunged to half its value against the US dollar.
She jumped from her 16th-floor apartment after quarrelling with her husband about the future of their son, who needed $2,750 to study in Australia.
In Japan, where ritual suicide is woven into the country's culture, there have been several suicides linked to the financial crisis.
A self-proclaimed adviser to a defunct construction company which went bankrupt was found dead with his wife in their Tokyo home 10 days ago.
Police said Mr Masashi Sakamoto (58) and his 34-year-old wife, Mitsuyo, appeared to have killed themselves by swallowing poison.
Last month commuters going to work in Tokyo watched in horror as Mr Seiichi Tanigashira (40), an employee of a firm affiliated with the failed Yamaichi brokerage, committed suicide by jumping off a building in the financial district of Osaka.
Japan also recorded one of the most unusual suicides.
A 38-year-old accountant from Yamaichi Securities died of fatigue after working for 14 days without a break when the company folded.
He was found dead on November 27th, and investigators said they were treating the case as karoshi, or death from overwork.
In Malaysia rumours of the suicide of the son of Dr Mahathir Mohamad have become so prevalent that the Prime Minister appealed to people last week to stop believing them.
During the past month the market has been buzzing with news that his son, Mirzan, the head of Konsortium Perkapalan, had slashed his wrists because of the sharp fall in share prices.
He appeared in public with no slash marks, but the rumours persisted.