'Four children killed in mine blast' in Yemen

Three died at the scene, while the fourth child succumbed to injuries in hospital, medical source said

The docks at Yemen's Red Sea coastal city of Hodeidah. AFP

Four children were killed on Thursday in the Houthi rebel-controlled western Yemeni city of Hodeidah after one of them stepped on a landmine, a medical source and a father said on Friday.

The source said a group of seven children were walking through an empty lot near the Red Sea city's airport, an area where mines pose a constant threat to civilians, when tragedy struck.

Three of them were killed immediately, while the fourth child died in hospital, he said, adding that the victims were aged between 10 and 15.

“The children went out in the morning while we were asleep … The surviving children came and told us about the accident,” father Yahya Abdullah told AFP.

“I went and found one of my two sons injured but alive, but his brother had died,” he said.

“I covered his stomach, he had been hit by shrapnel, and carried him to the hospital, but he died in the operating room.”

Liz Throssell, a spokeswoman at the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR, said last month that “children are especially at risk” from landmines or improvised explosive devices or unexploded ordnance, although a ceasefire that took effect in April in Yemen's conflict since 2015 between Houthi rebels and the government backed by a Saudi-led military coalition has largely held.