Mother finds son playing with loaded gun

A mother was shocked to find her son playing with a loaded handgun in their Sha Tau Kok home yesterday while on his Christmas holidays from school.

The boy had returned home to play with the gun, which was loaded with 10 rounds of ammunition, after he and a friend found the weapon in the boot of a wrecked car abandoned near Ho Pa Village on Wednesday afternoon.

The frightened mother quickly seized the weapon from her son. She then picked up his friend shortly before 2pm and escorted the pair, both Form 1 students aged 12 and 13, to Sheung Shui Police Station.

A police source said the weapon was a Chinese-made semi-automatic .22 calibre pistol. It has been sent for examination by ballistics experts to determine if it has been fired recently or whether it is linked to any crimes.

One officer said he considered it very lucky that the schoolboy had not fired the gun accidentally and injured himself or somebody else, especially as he had had the gun for as long as 24 hours.

Regional Crime Unit officers cordoned off the area yesterday where the car was abandoned to dust for fingerprints. The car was towed to a police compound.