The mother of a 6-year-old boy who shot and seriously wounded his teacher in January has been charged with child neglect, a prosecutor in the US state of Virginia announced on Monday.

In addition to the felony indictment, the mother was also charged by a grand jury with "recklessly leaving a loaded firearm so as to endanger a child," a statement by the prosecutor's office in the city of Newport News said.

On January 6, 25-year-old teacher Abigail Zwerner was wounded by a first-grade student in her classroom at Richneck Elementary School in the city of Newport News after school officials received warnings that the boy had a gun at school.

Teacher sues school

Meanwhile, Zwerner last week filed a $40 million (€36.8 million) lawsuit against school administrators, alleging they ignored warnings from staff and pupils that the boy had a gun.

School officials confirmed that they had been alerted to the possibility that the boy had the weapon at school, but that a search of his belongings before the shooting yielded no gun.

While accidents involving young children accessing unsecured firearms in their homes are common in the United States, school shootings perpetrated by those under 10 years old are rare. A database compiled by US researcher David Riedman has only registered about 15 such incidents since the 1970s.

dh/jsi (AP, AFP, Reuters)