A girl was killed in Turkey today, Sunday, while playing with a hunting rifle at her grandmother's house in the western province of Bursa, according to the Turkish newspaper "Cumhuriyet."
In detail, the newspaper reported that the child S.K. (9 years old) came to his grandmother’s house in the Hisar neighborhood of Bursa to celebrate Mother's Day, where he found his cousin, Miraj Guvenier (9 years old). The two children began to play in an empty room and found a hunting rifle in the room at around 2:30 PM local time.
The newspaper stated that "Miraj Guvenier, a third-grade student, and her cousin S.K. started playing pranks on each other using the rifle they found while playing in the room." The local newspaper added that Miraj Guvenier was shot in the head when her cousin accidentally fired the shot as a joke.
It reported that police and medical teams were dispatched to the scene after local residents heard the gunfire. When the medical teams arrived at the house, they found the girl lying on the floor and covered in blood and that she had died, according to "Cumhuriyet."
In this context, Miraj Guvenier's body was transferred to the morgue of Orhangazi Government Hospital, while S.K. was taken into custody at a local police station in the city. The child is expected to be transferred to a juvenile facility.
According to Turkish criminal law, the child will not be released even if his cousin's family withdraws the complaint, as he must serve time in what is known as "public rights." Similar incidents of children being killed due to the proliferation of unlicensed firearms are recurring in Turkey.
