In Chechnya, a boy incidentally shot dead his small sister

In the Shali District of Chechnya, law enforcement bodies are investigating the circumstances of a tragedy in one of local families. A seven-year-old boy was casually handling a fowling piece and fatally wounded his sister who was five years old.

"In the city of Shali, when their parents were away, the boy of seven took the fowling piece out of a metal cabinet and started playing with it. His five-year-old sister was in the room at that moment. As a result of the boy's casual handling, the weapon made a shot. The girl was heavily wounded and died in the place of the incident," a source in the law enforcement bodies of the Republic has informed.

"Boy's father might be made responsible for non-observance of the firearm storage regulations that caused this tragedy," the spokesman said.

Cases when people perish as a result of casual weapon handling have become regular in Chechnya.

For example, on June 6 in the Oktiabrskiy District of Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, a local resident made a casual shot from a Makarov pistol and wounded a girl of eight in her head; the girl was playing in the yard of an apartment house.

However, these incidents are most frequent among militiamen and militaries.

A serious problem in the Republic is caused by the fact that, despite the law adopted by the Republic's government in August 2004, according to which the residents who voluntarily hand over weapons and ammunition are remunerated with money, people nevertheless do not hurry up to depart with their "barrels".