Store sorry for selling toy Katyushas
Rocket launchers made by Dutch company available in pink, yellow or beige at London’s Liberty department store
Joshua Davidovich is The Times of Israel's Deputy Editor
A London shop has apologized for selling toy Katyusha rocket launchers aimed at the children’s market.
Luxury department store Liberty said it wouldn’t sell the pink, yellow and beige rocket launchers anymore, even though they had proven popular sellers.
“These toys have sold out on the website and in the store. It was an oversight in terms of ordering something without thinking through what it was,” the company told The Independent newspaper on Saturday.
A search of their website early Sunday, though, showed the toys still for sale and marked down to 9.40-11.75 pounds (NIS 58-73).
Soviet-made Katyusha rockets are remembered in Israel for wreaking havoc in the north of the country during the second Lebanon War, when Hezbollah fired thousands of the rockets into the country, killing dozens.
They were first used by the Soviets in World War II.
MP Jo Swinson called the decision to sell the toys “bizarre.”
The toy rocket launchers are made by Dutch company Kids on Roof. The company’s website, which also sells toy tanks, says the launchers are not meant to shock but rather to “let kids play war peacefully — as they have been doing for centuries and will do [in] coming centuries.”
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