A teenage student was shot dead last Thursday when a classmate accidentally fired a starting gun in a classroom at a technical training school in Yichun City, east China's Jiangxi Province, local police said on Monday. The victim, Cheng Liang, 18, was taken to hospital but died a day later.

 

The accident occurred at 1:50 PM when one of Cheng's classmates was fiddling with a starting gun that had been brought into the school from outside. It was loaded with steel ball bearings. The boy with the weapon, surnamed Huang, fired the gun accidentally and shot Cheng in the temple, according to the police.

 

The gun was brought into the classroom by another student surnamed Zhou. Both Zhou and Huang have been detained by police and an investigation into the incident is ongoing. Police have confirmed that the shooting was accidental.

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 16, 2007)