A four-year-old boy has died after shooting himself with a gun he found in his home.

Garrion Glover Jr's grandmother, LaToya Glover, said the child "got hold of a gun and he shot himself" in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Garrion, from East Chicago, Indiana, was taken to hospital following the shooting and was pronounced dead at 3am.

The boy's cousin, Kenny Trout, said Garrion liked to play with toy guns and probably thought the weapon was a toy.

Ms Glover added that two years earlier, Garrion's father was murdered in the apartment complex the child lived in and that many of the residents owned guns for protection.

It was not immediately clear who owned the gun.