A teenaged badminton player who represented Uttaranchal in the Junior National Championship was shot dead in the Government Sports Complex at Kashipur in Udham Singh Nagar district, police said on Tuesday.

Preliminary investigations indicated that Manoj Tiwari, 18, was killed on Monday by a gunshot accidentally fired by his friend, they said.

Tiwari was practising in the indoor stadium of the sports complex when he was shot, they said. He was declared dead at the government hospital.

On interrogation, the victim's friends -- Hitendrapal Singh, Luv Kumar and Anurag Saxena -- confessed that Tiwari was shot accidentally by Saxena when examining a countrymade pistol brought to the stadium by Singh, police said.

The three friends had earlier told interrogators that Tiwari was shot outside the stadium.

Tiwari had taken part in several junior national badminton championships. His two elder sisters are badminton coaches in Dehradun.