Louisiana: Man charged after children shot at while playing hide and seek

US officials have charged a 58-year-old man with aggravated assault and battery after he allegedly shot at children who had been playing hide and seek outside his home.

The shooting, in Louisiana, left a 14-year-old girl with a gunshot wound to the back of the head.

She was taken to hospital for treatment for non-life threatening injuries.

Investigators have learned that several children were playing hide and seek in the Starks neighborhood, Louisiana, and were hiding on the neighbour's property.

David Doyle told detectives that he retrieved his gun from indoors after he saw shadows outside his home.

When he returned outside he saw people running away and began shooting, at which point he claims he unknowingly hit the girl.

Doyle was arrested and charged with aggravated battery, four counts of aggravated assault with a firearm and illegal discharge of a firearm, the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff's Office said.

The shooting is the latest in the US to have been seemingly sparked by trivial circumstances.

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In April, teenager Ralph Yarl was shot in the head after accidentally going to the wrong door when trying to pick up his younger brothers.

The 16-year-old spent four days in hospital receiving treatment which involved removing a bullet from his head that had been lodged there for 12 hours.

That same month a North Carolina man was arrested on suspicion of shooting and wounding a six-year-old girl and her parents after she went to retrieve a basketball that had rolled into his driveway.