A three-year-old girl in Houston, Texas, United States, has accidentally shot and killed her sister, 4, after finding a loaded semi-automatic pistol in their apartment while their parents had friends over and left them unattended.

The accidental shooting happened in the family home on Sunday, March 12, at 8pm local time.

According to Mail Online, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said the two girls were left unsupervised in a bedroom in the apartment as one parent thought the other was watching them.

There were also five adults – family members and friends – present in the apartment on Bammel North Houston Road, among which were the girls’ parents.

It is believed that the three-year-old found a loaded semi-automatic pistol and shot once, striking her four-year-old sister, the sheriff said.

The adults rushed into the bedroom after the single shot was fired to find the four-year-old unresponsive.

They secured the firearm and called the emergency services via 911. The toddler was pronounced dead at the scene.

Sheriff Gonzalez said, “It just seems like another tragic story of, again, a child gaining access to a firearm and hurting someone else and this time there was a fatal shot.”

“Our hearts are broken. Our deputies are pretty shaken up,” Gonzalez continued, noting that support personnel would be at the scene to assist the officers and family members.

“The community is impacted when a child loses their life in this way,” he said and added that the shooting was another avoidable gun death.

“We continue to send the message that this is very preventable.

“You’ve got to be sure you’re being a responsible gun owner, securing your weapons in a safe place. It’s got to be more than just telling young kids not to touch the weapons.

“You know, we’ve got to do a little more. We see far too many tragic situations like this unfold.”

The Harris County District Attorney’s Office will decide whether any of the adults will face charges based on the police investigation, which is still in the preliminary phase, according to Gonzalez.

Mail Online reports that advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety analysed data on shootings so far in 2023 and found that there had been at least 58 unintentional shootings by children in the US, which resulted in 22 deaths and 37 injuries.

The group added that in 2022, there were at least 353 unintentional shootings by children, resulting in 156 deaths and 212 injuries.

Credit: CBS New

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A powerful earthquake has struck Turkey again amid the nation’s struggle to recover from previous disasters this month.

The 5.5 magnitude earthquake took a blow to central Turkey, just days after two further quakes hit the border near Syria.

At 10.27 am, the alarm of a 10km-deep quake was raised by the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre.

It was said to have occurred 40km south of city Aksaray and 18km northeast of Emirgazi was hit by a 10km-deep quake.

India Today also reported that the disaster took place in the Niğde province which is almost 230 miles from Gaziantep – affected by the initial 7.8 quake on February 6.

Collapsed buildings and heaps of rubble were also photographed in the Golbasi district, worsening the toll taken to Turkey’s infrastructure.

Today’s disaster comes at a time when both Turkey and Syria had begun work to reconstruct homes for the millions that were displaced by the quakes.

More than 50,000 have been killed due to the continued destruction, but no casualties have been confirmed as a direct result of today’s incident.

Vice President Fuat Oktay has since tweeted that teams are ‘in the field’ assessing the damage caused but ‘there is no negative situation at the moment’.

He said: ‘Get well soon to all our citizens who were affected by the earthquake in the Bor district of Niğde.

‘Our teams are in the field, the damage assessment work continues. There is no negative situation at the moment. May Allah protect our country and our nation from all kinds of disasters.’

On Monday, a new 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck parts of Turkey and Syria that were laid waste by a massive tremor that occurred two weeks prior.

Officials confirmed that three people died in Monday’s tremor after more buildings collapsed, trapping occupants, and several people were injured in both countries.

This came exactly two weeks after the catastrophic earthquakes of 7.8 and 7.6 magnitude that took place on February 6.

Nine thousand aftershocks are said to have taken place in Turkey since the deadly quake.

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A 6.4 magnitude earthquake has struck southern Turkey, weeks after a deadly quake devastated the region leading to the death of more than 46,000 people.


According to a government source, a disaster and emergency agency, Afad said, the tremor struck the region around 20:00 local time.

The mayor of Hatay, in southern Turkey, has said people are trapped under rubble.

A 7.8-magnitude quake struck the same area on February 6, leading to 46,000 deaths.

Turkish authorities have recorded over 6,000 aftershocks since that earthquake hit the region and said today’s(Monday’s) tremor felt much more potent than previous ones.

For the region’s people, it has been a moment of back-to-back sorry, disaster and agony.

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