Abidjan - A colonel in the Ivory Coast army was fatally wounded by gunfire as he tested a "magic" belt supposedly with powers to protect him from bullets, the official Ivorian daily Fraternite-Matin reported.
It said Col Pascal Gbah (49) died on the spot on Monday night after being hit by a bullet fired from his own service pistol by a (now fugitive) 20-year-old son of the belt's maker, Mr Andre Gondo, Col Ghah's cousin. Mr Gondo, now under arrest, had insisted the belt's protective powers were real, provided one abstained from sex while wearing it.