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A young mother was accidentally shot dead by her three-year-old son as she changed her one-year-old daughter’s nappy.

According to Tulsa World, the “horrible, horrible accident,” happened when the toddler found the loaded semi-automatic handgun and fired a shot, hitting 26-year-old Christa Engles in the head at her home in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Her mother and husband also live at the house in Tulsa, but neither was home at the time.

Engles' husband, a truck driver who was on the road, arrived home yesterday evening after hearing about the shooting and was only able to confirm his wife's death by repeatedly calling the hospital.

"The grandmother came in and supposedly found the two children covered in blood," a neighbour told a local television station.

A Tulsa Police sergeant told NBC News that there was a lot of guns in the house.

The boy apparently found the "large-calibre" handgun under the sofa.

"We are prepared to do what we have to do to keep the kid safe - we think this is a horrible, horrible accident," sergeant Dave Walker said.