An armoured vhicle driven by Turkish police officers hit 5-year-old N.D. as she was trying to cross the street on Wednesday afternoon.
CCTV footage of the incident, which took place in the Viranşehir (Wêranşar) district of Urfa (Riha), in southeastern Turkey, revealed in detail how the little girl was caught under the front wheel of the armoured vehicle as the vehicle continued driving.
The little girl, N.D., was taken to hospital in Viranşehir with serious injuries, reported Mezopotamya News Agency.
Viranşehir is a district of Urfa known for its Kurdish-majority population, and unfortunately such incidents of armoured vehicles hitting pedestrians occur repeatedly in Kurdish populated cities and districts.
Another Kurdish child, 7-year-old Miraç Miroğlu, was killed by a Turkish armoured police vehicle as he was riding his bike in Turkey’s southeastern city of Şırnak (Şirnex) on 3 September.
After the child Miraç was killed, a government official took a position in favour of the police officer who was driving the armoured vehicle that killed him.
So far 37 children have been killed by armoured vehicles in Turkey, all in Kurdish-majority provinces like Diyarbakır (Amed), Şırnak, Van (Wan), Hakkari (Colemêrg)and Mardin (Mêrdîn), according to Turkey’s Human Rights Association data.
