So much for the season of goodwill. Hot on the heels of an incident in America when a policeman drew his gun after his car was hit by snowballs (hardly weapons of mass destruction), one man has been killed and another seriously injured in the UK after icidents involving snowballs.
A snowball fight in Clos y Berllan in Rhuddlan, near Rhyl in North Wales, turned nasty and in the ensuing argument, 20 year old Anthony Finbar Burke suffered fatal stab wounds.
Meanwhile, a 52 year old man was severely beaten and left for dead on the doorstep of his home in Naisberry Park, Hartlepool after telling some youths to stop throwing snowballs at his house because it was frightening his dog.
In neither case have the culprits been apprehended, not that it would probably make much difference if they were. Apart from the banning of snowballs, of course.