BEIRUT: A seven-year-old girl has been left fighting for her life following a tragic incident at a school in Lebanon.
Naya Hannah is in a coma after a stray bullet struck her in the head while she was having lunch on her school’s playground in Hadath, near Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Hannah’s condition has been described as critical by Dr. Kamal Kanso, a specialist at the pediatric intensive care unit at Sacre Coeur Hospital.
A CT scan revealed that the bullet had penetrated Hannah’s brain and could not be extracted.
Kanso said that the bullet had settled in a very sensitive spot of the brain, adding that her condition was “very difficult” and that she was on a ventilator and in a stage-four coma.
HIGHLIGHT
The Ministry of Education always calls on people to refrain from celebratory gunfire at the time of exam results, and Caretaker Education Minister Abbas Halabi condemned the incident.
The schoolgirl was on the playground with friends at the College des Soeurs des Saints Coeurs when heavy gunfire was heard in the southern suburbs as people celebrated the results of baccalaureate exams.
Firearms are used to celebrate events in Lebanon despite the danger they pose.
Security forces have not yet identified the person behind the gunfire but the tragedy has prompted social and civic forces to speak out against such reckless acts.
The Ministry of Education always calls on people to refrain from celebratory gunfire at the time of exam results, and Caretaker Education Minister Abbas Halabi condemned the incident.
Hannah, who is an only child, was currently between life and death, said Mayor of Hadath George Edward Aoun.
He said: “She is the latest victim of the criminal bullets fired by people (who are) instinctively celebrating their happy occasions and the announcement of the results of the official examinations.”
He added that the celebratory shooters were “dehumanized killers.”
Remorse would not make up for the blood that Hannah had lost, he added.
Aoun called on the priests in Hadath’s parishes to pray for her recovery every day until Sunday.
Halabi believed the act was “recklessness that turned into a heinous crime.”
He called on security and military forces to pursue the shooters and refer them to the competent judiciary, and for the reckless habit to stop.
Halabi added that “some people did not answer our repeated calls to abstain from celebratory gunfire following the announcement of the results.”
He said they had instead turned the celebration into a crime that had seriously injured a little girl.
The minister said that “passing the official exams calls for happy celebrations, exchanging greetings, and promoting hope for the future amid the political deadlock.”
Researchers Information International has revealed that “stray bullets cause on average seven deaths and 15 injuries a year in Lebanon.”
Stray bullets resulted in 81 deaths and 169 injuries between 2010 and 2021, according to reports by the internal security forces and the media.
Parliament passed a law in 2016 criminalizing shooting firearms into the air and punishing shooters with prison terms ranging from six months to three years. If the gunfire results in a loss of life, they face a much harsher punishment.
However, the law has not ended the reckless practice and it persists in many regions.
