Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption School official Sam Sarabia explains what happened as the injured children are taken to hospital

Three young children in the US state of Texas have been injured after a gun brought to school by a six-year-old boy accidentally discharged.

The gun went off after falling from the boy's pocket, and three children were injured by fragments, police officials in the city of Houston said.

The children were taken on stretchers from Ross Elementary School. Their injuries were not life-threatening.

Police said the child who brought the gun was among the injured.

Image caption After the incident some parents called for additional security measures

The accident occurred in the school cafeteria about 1100 local time (1600 GMT).

Two six-year-old boys, including the one who brought in the gun, and a five-year-old girl were injured, all in the feet.

"Either some type of chips off the floor, or it could be pieces of the round that discharged," Houston Independent School District Assistant Police Chief Robert Mock said, describing the source of the injuries.

"They had some cuts and stuff on their legs, they don't appear to be life-threatening."

The children were sitting upright and appeared to be talking to emergency medical workers as they were brought from the school building, local television showed.

After the incident, parents rushed to the school to pick up the children.

"Being that this is an elementary school you would think that it would be safe, but now this makes you think nothing is safe," Shawn Dixon, 33, whose 10-year-old daughter Tyra is a student there, told the Associated Press.