Alaska News

Elementary boy finds loaded gun in his backpack

A 7-year-old boy from Philadelphia got a scary surprise when packing his backpack Thursday afternoon: a .38-caliber loaded handgun had made its way into his schoolbag.

The boy was at the after-school program at West Philly's Universal Samuel Daroff Charter School when he found the gun around 4 p.m. and notified a teacher, the Associated Press reported.

The school's staff immediately took the bag from the boy and called the police.

"We're currently investigating the specifics of how this kid came in contact with the weapon," said Lt. John Walker, adding that the gun was a revolver containing five rounds, according to Philly.com.

The boy was being questioned by detectives, as was his mother and a male family member, as to the origins of the gun, NBC News Philadelphia reported.

He said that the bag had been with him in class the whole day, CBS News reported.

More from GlobalPost: 7-year-old brings gun to NY school

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/weird-wide-web/philadelphia-boy-finds-loaded-gun-backpack

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