A palace official said Tuesday the child, Felipe Juan Froilan, was handling a small-calibre shotgun Monday at country estate owned by his father when the gun went off and hit him in the right foot.

Widely known in Spanish media as simply Froilan, the boy is the son of Princess Elena, the eldest ofKing Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia's three children, and an aristocrat and banker named Jaime de Marichalar. The couple were divorced in 2009.

The child remained in a Madrid hospital Tuesday. He is the eldest of eight royal grandchildren.

The palace official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with the palace policy. AP