Pokemon Go’s first death, as warning issued about landmines

POKEMON has claimed its first death as concern rises over the world’s most dangerous spot to play the game.

IT WAS only a matter of time before Pokemon Go was responsible for someone’s death.

Two teenagers from Guatemala were hunting for Pokemon when they were gunned down playing the wildly popular game.

Jerson Lopez de Leon, 18, was killed, while his cousin Daniel Moises Picen, 17, was badly wounded.

Local reports said the pair were walking along a railroad looking for Pokemon on a street in Chiquimula, 200km from Guatemala City.

It isn’t clear what sparked the violent attack, but police suggest the game’s location features may have lead them into a dangerous neighbourhood.

Almost 20 bullet casings were found at the scene of the murder and police are now looking for a white van that was seen fleeing the scene.

The victim’s mother, Rosalinda, said she wished her son never left the house to play Pokemon Go.

“I don’t know why my son left the house,” she told theIndependent.

“He was already in bed when his cousin sent him a message asking him to go out and download a game a few blocks from the house.”

#PokemonGO is not all fun and games. Here is a video of a distracted driver who struck one of our cars. #PlaySafe pic.twitter.com/kOTfbTcILo

— Baltimore Police (@BaltimorePolice) July 19, 2016

While not fatal, a driver in Baltimore attempting to catch ‘em all crashed into a police cruiser, with the incident caught on one of the officer’s body cams.

After witnessing an SUV slamming into the patrol car, the police ran down to see the driver outside his vehicle, cellphone still in hand.

“That’s what I get for playing this dumb ass game,” the unnamed driver told police.

Baltimore Police didn’t say if the man was charged with distracted driving, but used the incident to warn other drivers.

“Pay attention to your surroundings. There are way too many people with their heads buried in their Pokemon,” a spokesman toldCBS.

Locally, Pokemon Go has seen another victim of injury.

While hunting Pokemons in the Botanic Gardens in Brisbane’s CBD on Wednesday night, a teenage girl had her arm broken by a falling tree branch.

The Queensland Ambulance Service said the girl was taken to Royal Brisbane Hospital in a stable condition about 9.30pm.

We are lucky Australia is a reasonably safe place to play Pokemon Go.

One of the most troubling reports from the game is the fact Pokemon Go players in Bosnia are being warned to stay away from areas of the country with large numbers of unexploded landmines.

An estimated 120,000 mines remain buried from the Bosnian War between 1992 and 1995.

Since the end of the conflict, 600 people have been killed by the devices and now a charity believes Pokemon Go will cause this to skyrocket.

The charity, Posavina bez mina, published a warning to gamers on its Facebook.

“Today we received information that some users of the Pokemon Go app in Bosnia were going to places which are a risk for (unexploded) mines, in search of a Pokemon,” it wrote.

“Citizens are urged not to do so, to respect demarcation signs of dangerous mine fields and not to go into unknown areas.”