“Incidents like this could be avoided.”

The police statement did not identify the relationship between the woman and toddler, but WESH television of Orlando reported that officers said she was the toddler’s mother.

There were at least 369 unintentional shootings by children under 18 in the US last year, with 142 deaths, according to the gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety.

In February, a 25-year-old mother of five in North Carolina was inadvertently shot and killed after her children found a gun in her purse, police in the town of Cornelius said.

And in April, a three-year-old boy in Houston found an unsecured firearm and fatally shot his eight-month-old brother, police said.

Altamonte Springs is a city of around 43,800 just north of Orlando in Florida.