A 16-year-old boy was shot and seriously injured Thursday morning in his Safed home, apparently by a stray bullet .
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Police said that the circumstances of the accident weren't clear, but it was possible that the boy had improvised a gun and was playing with it when the bullet fired. According to two of his friends, he would construct explosive devices and guns according to instructions he found on the Internet.
"A week ago, he was playing with a gun he had built, and a bullet fired," they recalled.
The Safed apartment building where the boy was found. (Photo: Aviyahu Shapira)
At 8:17 am one of the boy's neighbors called the paramedics. He was found in the entrance to the apartment building, surrounded by tools, screwdrivers, and gun parts. Paramedics said that the boy had been hit by a bullet that entered the middle of his chest and was semi-conscious when they arrived on the scene.
Dr. Amram Hadari, who operated on the youth, told Ynet that doctors had found a 5.56-millimeter bullet. "We also found the point of entry on the heart's front ventricle and the exit wound from the back. A wound of this type requires a long recovery," he explained.
Safed Police Commander Chief-Superintendent Ofer Kantrovitch said that the boy lived in a separate unit in his parents' home. "He was found shot in the chest, in mortal danger."
The boy's mother said she hadn't seen him when she left the house that morning.