PALMDALE, Calif. - Officials say a boy playing "cops and robbers" with a toy handgun has been shot and wounded by a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy.

The boy was shot Sunday night in Palmdale, about 80 kilometres north of Los Angeles. .

Deputy Jeff Gordon says the boy was hospitalized in stable condition and is expected to survive.

His age and identity were not immediately released.

Gordon says deputies were responding to reports that someone was riding a bicycle and brandishing a handgun. Police spotted the rider and ordered him to drop the weapon, but instead, Gordon says he pointed it at the deputies.

One deputy fired a shot and hit the boy in the upper body.