Boy kills sister while playing with rifle in US

Los Angeles, May 2 (IANS/EFE) A five-year-old boy shot and killed his two-year-old sister in Cumberland County, Kentucky, while he was playing at home with a rifle specifically designed for children that he had received as a present last year, a television station reported.

WKYT-TV reported that the boy fired one shot Tuesday, hitting his sister, while the children's mother was also in the house.

The little girl was transported to a nearby hospital where she was pronounced dead.

"It's one of those crazy accidents," said the county medical examiner, Gary White, who identified the girl as Caroline Starks, according to the Kentucky.com Web site.

The weapon used in the tragic killing is a .22 "Crickett" rifle for children manufactured by the Keystone Sporting Arms company, White said, adding that the boy was used to handling the gun.

The rifle was kept in the corner of a room in the house and, evidently, the parents did not know that there was a bullet in the chamber.

The web page Crickett.com, owned by Keystone Sporting Arms, is promoting the sale of firearms for minors under the slogan "My first rifle" and says that it sells "Quality firearms for America's youth".

In 2008, the company produced 60,000 firearms for children, including rifles and pistols, many of them in bright colours.

--IANS/EFE

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