New York, April 30 (IANS) An eight-year-old schoolboy here sold his father's loaded gun to a classmate for $3.50, officials said.

The boy, a third-grader, took the gun from the top of a shelf where his father had hidden it.

There were three live rounds in the illegal 9-mm pistol when the boy took it to his school in Flushing and sold it to a classmate Thursday, nydailynews.com reported.

A senior police said the gun's serial number had been scratched off.

"The whole idea of a second- or third-grader carrying a loaded firearm into a crowded school and selling it is very disturbing on so many levels," Queens District Attorney Richard Brown was quoted as saying.

The gun sale came to light when the buyer carried it home in his school bag.

"The boy who purchased it did bring it home and his mother saw it and she called the principal," an official said.

The school principal told the buyer's mother to come in with her child and the gun.