INDIA: At least five children have died in macabre accidents across India whilst re-enacting the highly publicised hanging earlier this month of a man convicted of raping and murdering a teenager, officials said.
Newspapers also reported several cases in which school children almost died when their friends acted out Dhananjoy Chatterjee's execution in the eastern port city of Calcutta a fortnight ago. In mock re-runs of India's first execution in 15 years, the children played the hangman, the doctor, prison warden and the magistrate who were present at Chatterjee's dawn hanging in Calcutta's Alipore jail.
Chattterjee, who spent 13 years on death row, was hanged after his mercy plea to two successive presidents and the Supreme Court were turned down.
Human rights activists held protest rallies across the country.