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Hollywood actresses Demi Moore and Nia Vardalos, star of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," helped police on Friday thwart a possible suicide attempt after being alerted to it through Twitter.

Moore and Vardalos were instrumental in rushing police to the home of an 18-year-old Florida man who had written a message on Twitter saying he had "messed up my life bad" and was "thinking about killing myself."

The suicidal man, who is not being identified by AFP, wrote a message addressed to Moore's Twitter account saying he was "about to go hang myself from a tree outside my house and end my life."

"I have no reason to live anymore," the man wrote, adding "I am going to send a live feed of me hanging myself. No one cares if I die or not."

Moore, who is married to actor Ashton Kutcher and goes by @mrskutcher on Twitter, wrote the man back asking if he needed help. He responded "yes."

Vardalos, who saw the exchange on Moore's public Twitter feed, called a suicide prevention center in Los Angeles which contacted the Seminole County Sheriff's Office.

The police officer who arrived at the young man's home in Casselberry, Florida, around 2:30 am said in his report that he found him "sitting at his computer desk crying."

His mother told the officer her son was "very emotional and diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder."

The police officer said the man admitted posting the suicide threats on Twitter and that he "did not know what he would do to himself without help."

He was placed in protective custody.

Moore posted a message on her Twitter account on Friday saying "Thank you Twitterverse for your help supporting someone in pain last night."

Varalos acknowledged on her Twitter feed @niavaralos that she had helped the authorities reach the suicidal man.

"I called suicide line, connected to (Florida) police, gave his name+city, they saved him," she wrote.

She added that she was a "little shaken" but "want to say thank u Twitter for caring about a stranger in (Florida) last night."

It was the second time in less than a year that Moore was involved in preventing a possible suicide.

In April of last year, Moore reported a suicide threat to police in San Jose after a woman wrote on her Twitter account that she was going to harm herself.

AFP