An eight-year-old boy has survived being hung from a rope by a group of teenagers who were taunting him with racial slurs, his family has claimed.
The incident occurred in Claremont, New Hampshire on 28 August.
The boy has been treated at area hospitals for cuts and bruises to his neck and has since returned to school.
The boy's uncle posted publicly on Facebook about his nephew's injuries, writing: "My nephew was hung from a tree by a 14yr old who claims "it was an accident." I don't care what kind of excuse this teenager has but you DO NOT play with somebody's life."
Police have yet to release any more details about the case, citing the privacy concerns of all the minors involved - but say they are investigating the incident.
The boy's grandmother, Lorrie Slattery, has however come forward to allege that the incident was "intentional".
She said she has pieced together the story from her granddaughter and a few other children who were present. There were allegedly no adults present.
She said that the teens got up on a picnic table and used the rope that had been holding up a tyre swing, somehow placed it around her grandson's neck, and pushed him off the table while yelling "racial epithets" and throwing sticks and rocks at him.
He swung three times before being able to free himself and the teenagers supposedly did not help the boy.
“One boy said … ‘Let’s do this,’' she said to local newspaper Valley News.
According to the 2010 census Claremeont has 13,000 residents and is 96 per cent white, 0.6 per cent African-American and 1.8 per cent biracial, The Root reported.
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