A family in Azerbaijan’s Aghjabadi district lost five of its members on Friday, January 31, because a child brought something home from a rubbish dump.
It was a hand grenade. According to Qafqazinfo, the child was the grandson of the woman who owned the house in the Hindarkh settlement, and he had found the device on the dump. It went off inside the home at about noon. Five people died, three of them minors, and two more were injured, the Prosecutor General’s Office said. All the victims belonged to one family.
The two survivors, a woman born in 1985 and a girl born in 2014, were taken to Aghjabadi’s central district hospital. Health authorities told Qafqazinfo the woman had a closed injury to her lower limbs and the girl a puncture wound to hers. Both were in moderate condition and still being treated in the surgical department.
What prosecutors are doing
Local reports quoted by Xinhua said the young child found the grenade, carried it into the house and set it off. Prosecutors and police have examined the scene and carried out forensic work there. The Prosecutor General’s press service later said a criminal case had been opened. It covers negligent killing of two or more people and the illegal acquisition and keeping of ammunition and explosives.
How the grenade ended up in a rubbish heap is the open question. Nothing in the early statements explained it.
The toll was revised as the day went on. Trend published the names of the five dead and listed three people as injured, where earlier counts had said two. The health authorities spoke of two patients in hospital.
Sources
- Five killed in hand grenade explosion in Azerbaijan (Xinhua)
- Five dead in hand grenade explosion in Azerbaijan (News.az)
- Agcabedide evde qumbara partladi, 5 nefer helak oldu (Qafqazinfo)
