St. Louis toddler shoots himself in the head

ST. LOUIS -- Police in St. Louis say a toddler was critically wounded when he accidentally shot himself in the head.

The boy is described as 2 to 4 years old. KMOV-TV reported he was undergoing surgery Thursday afternoon at Children's Hospital.

Some details are unclear, but police believe the boy was with his mother and an infant sibling at their north St. Louis home when he somehow got his hands on a loaded gun. They said he accidentally shot himself and was found lying on a bed.

The mother ran to get the father at the neighbor's house and they raced the toddler to the hospital, flagging down paramedics on the way.

Police said officers did not recover a gun at the scene. They're checking if someone might have taken it before police arrived.