Woman shoots herself while Snapchatting

22-year-old shoots hand and breaks phone while posing with gun

The woman shot herself in the hand while posing with her uncle's gun (Getty)

A 22-year-old woman has shot and injured herself while posing with a gun while using the messaging app Snapchat.

The woman in Deltona, Florida, had been posing with her uncle’s .40-calibre pistol on Sunday evening when she accidentally pulled the trigger, according to the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office.

The woman told officers she had been “foolishly playing” with the gun when she accidentally shot her mobile phone, causing it to shatter and suffering lacerations to her thumb and index fingers, ABC 10 News reported.

The shot was heard by the woman’s aunt, who rushed to the scene and drove her niece to the Florida Hospital Fish Memorial.

Officers said the aunt threw the gun from her car while driving her niece to the hospital. The weapon has not yet been retrieved by police.

Earlier this year a teenage boy in India accidentally shot himself in the head while trying to take a selfie with his father’s gun. He survived the incident and was taken to hospital to be treated for his injuries.

Police at the time said the blame partly lies with the boy’s father for not keeping his gun “under lock and key”.