Tanzania 'grenade' explosion kills six schoolchildren


FE Team | Published: November 09, 2017 10:12:51 | Updated: November 13, 2017 10:41:56


The victims are being treated at a local hospital (Photo Courtesy: Shabani Nasibu)

At least six children have been killed and 25 others injured in an explosion at a primary school in Kagera region near the border with Burundi in north-west Tanzania, witnesses say.

The pupils were playing with a grenade they had found.

Three were declared dead at the time they arrived at hospital. The others succumbed to their wounds, said Rulenge hospital's doctor in charge, Sister Maria Goreth Fredricks, according to a BBC report.

The region hosts refugees from neighbouring Burundi, some of them ex-soldiers, who could have abandoned their weapons in the area and the device that exploded is likely to be a grenade.

Kagera regional police Chief, Augustine Orome said a security team had been dispatched to the school in Kihinga village.

The region is also a transit point for arms and it is not uncommon for residents to come across weapons.

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