WATCH: Iraqi police catch and strip child 'suicide attacker' in football shirt
Security forces in the Kurdish Iraqi city of Kirkuk on Sunday foiled an attack by a boy in his early teens who reportedly attempted to blow himself up in a residential district using an explosives vest concealed beneath an oversized football shirt.
Footage from the scene of the incident, which took place just hours after a separate bombing at a Shia mosque nearby injured three people, showed police surrounding the boy, thought to be as young as 12, before removing an explosives vest.
Footage showed the boy crying and screaming after the vest was taken off, as he was surrounded by security officials.
The boy told police during interrogation that he had been forced to attempt the attack by a gang of masked men, who kidnapped him and placed the explosives vest on him, a Kirkuk intelligence official told the AP news agency.
According to Brigadier Chato Fadhil Humadi, the boy arrived in Kirkuk a week ago after he was displaced from his hometown, the Islamic State-occupied city of Mosul, by military operations in the area.
The foiled attack happened a day after a child believed to be as young as 14 blew himself up at a wedding in the Turkish town of Gaziantep, killing 54 people.
Over half the victims were children under the age of 14, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday.
Security officials blamed the attack on the Islamic State (IS) group.
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