A six-year-old boy in India’s Bihar state took a gun into school on Wednesday and shot a classmate, local media has reported. According to police, the 10-year-old survivor is being treated in hospital.
The incident occurred in the Supaul district of Bihar, one of the most economically depressed states of India. Police have reportedly taken the school principal into custody, temporarily sealed the building, and are now searching for shooter’s father, to ascertain how the child got hold of the firearm.
A local police official has said the boy appears to have believed the gun was a toy.
“The child had brought an illegal weapon to school in his school bag”, Pipin Kumar, a senior police official, told ABP news. “He was playing with it when it suddenly went off, hitting a student.”
The injured child has said there was no quarrel between him and the shooter before the incident.