Ministry: Iraqi children’s toy shotguns leave 148 injuries during feast
Iraqi kids playing with toy guns.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi health authorities have said that dozens of injuries had been caused by toy shotguns, popular among children during feasts.
The Health Ministry said Tuesday that shotgun pellets wielded by children as toys have left 148 wounded among them across Iraqi provinces during the Islamic al-Fitr feast, which followed the holy fasting month of Ramadan and ended Monday.
Ministry spokesperson Seif a-Badr said in a statement, quoted by Alghad Press, that the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, recorded the highest number of injuries. He said most of the injuries were sustained in the eyes, which required surgeries at some cases.
According to al-Badr, “those violence-instigating toys kill the joy of the feast and leave irreversible damage”, urging to enforce legal measures to curb the phenomenon., which, he said, persists despite earlier warnings by the ministry.
Local activists have urged security authorities to crackdown on importers of those toys.
Iraq’s top Shia clergy had prohibited the toy shotgun trade.