Festive gunfire kills child in Saudi

A six-year-old boy was killed by a stray bullet during a festival held in a Saudi town to welcome the return of a resident from pilgrimage in the holy city of Makkah, local newspapers reported on Friday.

Residents of Al-Haqu in the southern province of Jizan were shooting in the air to celebrate the return of a local pilgrim from Makkah when the bullet lodged in the boy’s chest, killing him at the scene, they said.

“The person who fired the weapon turned himself in to the authorities straight away,” a police spokesman said.