Three children were hurt after a loaded gun fell out of a six-year-old kindergarten student's pocket and discharged in the cafeteria of a Texas school, local media reported.

None of the children was seriously injured and it appears they were grazed by a single bullet and its shrapnel, officials told the Houston Chronicle.

The boy who brought the gun was wounded in the foot, another six-year-old boy was wounded in the leg and a five-year-old girl was wounded in the foot, school spokesman Jason Spencer told the paper.

Jarneshia Broussard, 5, was eating a hot dog and beans at the same table as the boy who brought the gun when she heard a loud noise.

"I knew it was a gun because a gun goes 'pow,' " she told the paper. "I got really scared."

Broussard said she and other children started to cry as pandemonium broke out among the frightened students at Betsy Ross Elementary School.

Officials did not close the school but allowed parents to pick their children up early if they wanted.

"This is a problem," Broussard's grandmother, Moneek Burleson said with tears in her eyes as she clutched her granddaughter's hand.

"This is a serious problem and it needs to stop."

A spokesman for the school district did not immediately return a request for comment