11% of south Delhi students carry weapons

NEW DELHI: In a shocking finding, over 11 percent of students in the upscale south Delhi carry weapons, a study by Safdarjung Hospital said on Wednesday.

The hospital's community medicine department studied three schools and two colleges in south Delhi and surveyed 550 students mainly below 19 years of age.

Rahul Sharma, professor at the department, said they carried out the survey to assess violent behaviour among students. He said many students carrying weapons said they do so as means of self-protection.

The survey found both male and female students are carrying weapons though the percentage of female students was very low.

Weapons that students carry vary from a knife to a hunter to a gun. Sticks and daggers too have made it to schools and colleges.

In December 2007, a class 8 student shot dead two of his classmates inside a school in Gurgaon on the outskirt of Delhi.