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In an accident in a suburb of the US metropolis of Chicago, a child accidentally shot a four-year-old girl. The father of the slain child and owner of the weapon alerted the police of the River Grove community on Wednesday, authorities said. Arriving officers found "a child who had been accidentally shot by another child from the same household." The girl later succumbed to her injuries.

The father, holder of a valid gun license, had kept the weapon in an upper compartment of a cupboard, according to the police. The authorities began investigations into what police called the "regrettable incident".

No information about the shooting child

The police did not provide any information on the age and gender of the child killed. The newspaper "Chicago Sun-Times" reported, citing the coroner's office, that it was a four-year-old girl. Initially, there was no information about the child who fired the weapon.

In the U.S., there are frequent incidents involving firearms in which children are killed or injured – sometimes by other children. According to Everytown for Gun Safety, an organization that advocates for stricter gun laws, 19,000 children are killed or injured by gunfire each year.

In the United States, it is estimated that there are more than 393 million firearms in the possession of the population. This means that there are 100 firearms per 120 inhabitants. According to the specialized website Gun Violence Archive, more than 20,200 people were killed by firearms last year, not including suicides. Attempts to tighten gun laws fail again and again due to resistance from conservative Republicans and the powerful gun lobby.

kfr/AFP