Outcry as 3-Year-Old Boy is Pictured Snorting Substance Thought to Be Cocaine in Bulgarian Village

A photo of a 3-year-old supposedly snorting cocaine has gone viral and drawing massive backlash after it was uploaded on Facebook.

According to Mirror, the toddler, simply identified as Mladen was pictured posing with what appears to be 3 lines of white power and a tube held to his nose at his home in Sindel in Bulgaria’s Varna Province.

Social media users have since slammed the little boy’s parents saying child service authorities should take the boy away from his parents.

The image was uploaded onto the social media profile of ‘Tina Vi Nuri’ and was accompanied by the comment ‘Mum and dad’s little junkie’.

Speaking about the photo, Nadezhda Nuri, the boy’s mother, told local media it was simply a joke and that the photo had been published by their 13-year-old daughter, Stiliana.

She added that the lines on the table were actually flour and that her daughter had staged a photo shoot with her little brother Mladen in the living room while she was cooking in the kitchen. She said she was not a learned person and that she wouldn’t have been able to post the picture online herself.

She added:  “My mother first saw the [picture of the] children and called me. I couldn’t have done such a thing, I don’t even know how to write. My daughter must have taken the photo and uploaded it online. I can’t do it because I can’t even read or write, never mind use a computer.”

According to neighbours, who defended her, they said she is a good mother and that her husband is working in Germany and has left her to take care of their children.

Her daughter, Stiliana who uploaded the photo, confirmed it was a joke and that she often staged similar photo shoots with her younger brother.

“I was only joking, I got the idea from Facebook. I have never seen real drugs. I once saw a woman on Facebook making lines with flour and then snorting it.”

However, child services in Bulgaria are preparing a report on the family and are said to be considering whether the intervention of the police is necessary.