For the seven children playing in southern Iraq, the shiny object looked intriguing.
It could have been a food package, so they went closer.
Within seconds, they were all lying dead. They had fallen victim to an unexploded cluster bomb, one of thousands dropped by US and British forces which now litter the country.
Every day children in Iraq are killed or a severely injured by unexploded bombs and landmines.
The Evening Mail is backing the Winning the Peace Appeal in aid of Iraqi children which was the brainchild of the city's faith leaders.
Kathryn Irwin, a Unicef worker recently returned from Iraq, said: "Unicef believes that the taking of a child's life is never an acceptable cost of war.
"During the conflict in Iraq, we voiced deep concern about reports of the use of cluster bombs in densely populated urban areas."
She added: "The bombs, or fragments of bombs, don't always explode on impact and children easily mistake these bomb packages for aid packages, placing children at huge risk of injury or death."
Mail readers' donations will go to Unicef to pay for urgent medical aid and educational needs.
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