A New Mexico toddler has shot his mother and father with the same bullet after pulling a gun from her handbag, police say.

The incident took place in a room at the America’s Best Value Inn on January 31 in Albuquerque in the state of New Mexico.

The 3-year-old boy was apparently reaching for an iPod.

The bullet passed through his father’s buttock and hit his mother, who is eight months pregnant, in the arm. Both parents are said to be recovering.

The boy’s two-year-old sister, who was also in the motel, was unhurt.

Justin Reynolds told NBC News station KOB he and his girlfriend Monique Villescas were about to order a pizza when he heard the shot.

“The next minute I realized my girlfriend was bleeding. Then I sat down and realized I was shot too.”

Justin Reynolds called emergency services and tried to staunch Monique Villescas’s bleeding with towels.

He said: “I was more worried about my girlfriend than myself and anything else that was going on. And my son because I didn’t know if he had shot himself or not. He was shocked and crying. It was traumatizing.”

Justin Reynolds has been released from hospital and Monique Villescas is in a stable condition.

Albuquerque police said the district attorney’s office would decide whether the parents would face negligence charges. The children have been taken into care.