Boy, 7, shoots brother, 5, dead

A five-year-old boy was killed when his seven-year-old brother accidentally shot him in the head while playing with a small-calibre weapon from their father’s gun shop, German police said today.

The shooting occurred yesterday when the seven-year-old was taking target practice at a plastic bottle in the garden of their family home in Regen, a small community about 80 miles north-east of Munich.

Police say the boys took the gun when their father was in another room with a customer.

The five-year-old was flown to a nearby hospital, where doctors unsuccessfully tried to save him, authorities said.

Such accidents are rare in Germany, which has tight gun-control laws that require extensive testing before a weapon can be acquired, and where gun-owners must be at least 21 years of age.