Landmine kills three children in Bosnia

Three children were killed when they stepped on a land mine in Sarajevo, say police.

Ema Alic, 11, Goran Biscevic, 12, and Haris Balicevac, 12, died on Monday in a minefield encircling the capital and left from the Bosnian war.

"Nobody could help them in that moment because they were in the middle of the minefield," said Sarajevo police spokesman Adnan Kosovac.

According to eyewitnesses at least one of the victims, a girl, was still alive after the explosion. She was screaming for help but nobody could approach her because of the danger of other live mines in the field. Six hours passed by the time a path to them was de-mined, and by then all three were dead.

Millions of land mines are strewn across Bosnia as a result of the 1992-1995 war. Mine explosions kill and injure dozens of people every month, and minefields render stretches of land along the former front line unusable.