Gang warfare takes young boy's life

  • 24/08/2016
Yuusuf Warsame (supplied)
Yuusuf Warsame (supplied)

An eight-year-old British boy has been killed by a grenade thrown into a flat in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Yuusuf Warsame, from Birmingham, was visiting relatives when the tragedy occurred.

"When the grenade detonated, it detonated from the floor up, so that means the children who were sleeping on the floor weren't hit," Gothenburg police spokesperson Thomas Fuxborg told UK paper The Telegraph.

"There could have been a lot more people killed - we were lucky that it was just one."

His nine-year-old sister Aisha and five-year-old brother Ahmed were in the same room, sleeping on the floor, and left unharmed.

His two older brothers - Ibrahim and Abdiraham, both teenagers - were in a different room and also escaped unscathed.

"When I heard the news I had to sit - I could no longer stand up," his father Abdiwahid Warsame said.

"My wife's heart is broken. She told me that he died in front of her. She was covered in his blood."

Police believe the attack was retaliation for a shooting at a nearby bar. Ahmad Warsame was recently sentenced to life for his involvement, and was registered as living at the address where young Yuusuf lost his life.

"I think the hit was meant to cause the family pain, because the boy who has been convicted is in our custody," Mr Fuxborg told The Telegraph.

The part of Gothenburg where the attack took place has seen Somali and Yugoslavian gangs exchange tit-for-tat attacks for the past half-decade.

Yuusuf sadly isn't the first child to be killed in the warfare. Four-year-old Luna Mandic was killed by a car bomb last year.

Newshub.