CHARIKOT: An inquisitive 12-year-old child in Jugu VDC-3 in Dolakha district died while playing with a self-made toy gun, on Wednesday.

Pritam Jirel, an eighth grader in a local school, breathed his last before he would call for help for his life following the explosion today, shared the deceased's family members.

Jirel, since his childhood, had an avid interest in arms, especially the guns carried by the then Maoists rebels or police and army men. As his interest started escalating, he would make look-alike toy guns and play with them, according to the family.

This time, he emulated a muzzle loader with a steel pipe of the antenna and used it as a barrel of the gun and used the matchsticks as gunpowder. He stuffed the matchstick heads with wood in the pipe of his toy gun, shared father of the deceased, Binod Jirel.

No sooner the curious kid ignited muzzle of the makeshift gun, the gunpowder fatally exploded, and the barrel pierced his head.

"My son used to go out and play with his peers since his school was not running following the quake. We did not take interest in his activities, but our indifference cost his life," shared the bereaved father.

The boy's body has been handed over to the deceased's family after the postmortem, according to the District Police Office, Dolakha.