CHITRAl, June 9 (AP) According to police, four children died late Sunday in Chitral after picking up an old ammunition shell that exploded. A police officer told AP that the boys were aged 10 to 13. They found the shell at the site of a former Afghan refugee camp in Chitral district.

It has been speculated that they might have tried to extract the object to sell it to a scrap metal dealer although it is possible they were merely playing with the object when the blast occurred. According to officials this is not the first time that live ordinance has been found in this mountainous north-western region which borders Afghanistan.