Telegraph.co.uk
Drunk German father shoots himself in front of family in Christmas Day Russian roulette
Last Updated: 12:21AM GMT 30 Dec 2008

A German family's Christmas celebrations were ruined when a drunk father killed himself while playing Russian roulette in front of them.

Ulrich Schmidt, a 52-year-old forestry worker from Cologne, drank too much schnapps at his family's holiday celebrations, police said.

After lunch, in a bid to entertain his family, he pulled out the .38 revolver he kept for work, to put injured animals out of their misery. As his horrified wife and children looked on, Mr Schmidt loaded a single bullet into one of the six chambers and spun the the cylinder of the gun.

Telling his children that he was going to play Russian roulette, he held the revolver to his head and then pulled the trigger.

Mr Schmidt collapsed in his chair as blood poured from his head. He was taken to hospital, where he died on Saturday.

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