A community in Florida is in mourning after a teenager accidentally killed himself at a gun range said to be one of the safest “ever designed”.

The 14-year-old, who has not yet been publicly identified, shot himself in the neck while at High Noon Guns in Sarasota on Sunday. The boy was taken to Sarasota Memorial Hospital where he died later that day.

“They are very professional owners,” Goichi Matsumoto, who owns a cafe come to the range, told the Bradenton Herald. “That’s why I am quite surprised something like this happened.”

The Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office confirmed the boy died of his wounds and termed it an accidental shooting. Nobody at the gun shop was available for comment on Monday, other than to confirm that an investigation was underway.

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The store - which describes itself on its website as a “safer, greener, quieter, cooler gun range” - offers nine indoor lanes for shooters. When the gun range was built in 2013, the Herald Tribune called it the “safest indoor shooting range ever designed,” with strategically placed armoured steel plates to take on stray rounds and prevent ricochets.

“It’s as safe as we could make it,” said owner John Buchan.