A Boy Was Hit By A Falling Bullet On New Year's Eve In The US & Yes It Can Actually Happen

What goes up must come down.

A 10-year-old boy survived a freak accident at a fireworks show on New Year’s Eve, when a falling bullet actually hit him in the face and went right through.

Fabian Rivera was watching fireworks from his backyard in New Orleans on December 31 when the bullet fell out of the sky and struck him, local station WWLTV reports.

“He was looking at the sky and then we heard like fireworks and then he got off the swing and came crying with blood,” the boy’s cousin, Diana Lopez, told WWLTV.

Police told NOLA.com that the bullet went through the boy's upper lip and came out of his lower jaw, leaving him with two broken teeth. He was taken to hospital, treated and later released.

The boy said he’s “feeling good” now, although the injury did leave him with some “terrible” pain.

Police are still investigating but they believe it was a falling bullet from a celebratory gunshot.

Bullets fired into the air can and do fall back to Earth, and while it’s rare for them to actually hit someone, it has happened before.

The bullets typically don’t pack the same force that they did when they were fired from a gun, but gravity can still give them enough speed to cause fatal damage, according to a 2004 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It's unclear exactly how often it happens, but there are a few reports each year of people being hit by falling bullets, especially around New Year's Eve.

Police in New Orleans have not identified any suspects in the case, although they did warn people about celebratory gunfire last week.

"Please DO NOT discharge firearms in the air," they wrote on Facebook.