Story By:  Ana Marjanovic, Sub-Editor: Michael Leidig, Agency:  Newsflash

A 10-year-old girl was killed by a stray bullet fired by a 16-year-old boy at an Egyptian wedding celebration.

The schoolgirl – named only as Haneen – had been watching the street party from a balcony in Port Said when guests began to fire guns into the air.

But a single bullet hit the tragic youngster and she died later in hospital.

Police say a 16-year-old boy has been arrested for the killing.

In a statement obtained by Newsflash, Egyptian Public Prosecution said on 22nd May: “The Prosecutor General has ordered the detention of a 16-year-old boy in the incident of the death of the girl Haneen in Port Said for four days for possession of firearms and ammunition as a precautionary measure for the investigation.”

A similar incident took place two years ago when a four-year-old Palestinian girl was hit in the head by a stray bullet as she sat down for dinner with her family.

Rafif Qara’een was hit by an M-16 calibre bullet as her family broke their Ramadan fast in Issawiya, East Jerusalem on 21st May 2020.

An expert team of paediatric neurosurgeons operated on the girl but the hospital said her “brain injury was extremely severe” and she died of the injury.

Police said they believed the bullet was fired from over the separation wall between Jerusalem and the West Bank controlled by the Palestinian Authority.

Firing guns is traditional at many Middle East weddings.

It goes back to days when two tribes intermarrying would both show their firepower to make sure the bride and groom were treated well.