A 12-year-old has accidentally shot himself in the face while playing with a rifle in south-west NSW.
The young boy was on a rural property with a group of friends in Thuddungra, north-west of Young, when the .22 rifle was fired around 7pm last night.
“Police have been told the boy and a friend were in possession of a .22 rifle which discharged and a round ricocheted into the face of the boy,” a NSW Police statement said.
He was immediately driven off the property and met an ambulance to take him to Young Hospital.
Thankfully, he’s in a stable condition with non-life threatening injuries and has since been airlifted to the Children’s Hospital at Westmead for specialist care, according to police.
Although a crime scene has been established at the property, officers from Cootamundra Local Area Command said they “do not believe there are any suspicious circumstances involved”.
The shooting comes after two young Australian children were shot last month.
The father of a three-year-old girl who was fatally shot in western Sydney was charged over the possession of an illegal sawn-off shotgun in August.
The 43-year-old has not however been charged with causing the “beautiful little” girl’s death.
A neighbour told The Daily Telegraph said they had heard a woman – thought to be the toddler’s mother – shouting “I hate you, I hate you, he killed my baby girl… rot in hell.”
“She was screaming it was his fault because he had a gun in the house.”
A family friend of the girl’s grandparents said the whole family was distraught.
“The people inside have also lost a son because he’s now in jail … what happened was a tragedy,” he said.
Neighbours recounted the horrific moment they heard a “loud” bang then hysterical screening. Witnesses say they heard a man shout “she’s dead… she’s shot herself”.
