A bride was shot dead at her own wedding when a stray bullet fired by a guest hit her in the head.

Victim Mahvash Leghaei, 24, had been celebrating after the service in Firuzabad, Iran, when a guest fired a shot from a high-powered hunting rifle.

The single bullet is said to have gone straight through the psychology graduate’s skull and injured two male guests at the event.

Her organs were later harvested for donation.

The custom of firing a gun at weddings although illegal is still common in the Middle East.

Police spokesman Colonel Mehdi Jokar said: “We had an emergency call of a shooting at a wedding hall in Firuzabad city and officers were dispatched immediately.

“The officers discovered that somebody had fired shots with a hunting rifle as part of the local nomad tradition, but unfortunately because of the crowds and the person’s poor control of the weapon, he managed to shoot three people, two men and the bride.

“The shooter then fled the area but police located the man still carrying the unlicensed hunting rifle that had been fired at the wedding.”

According to initial reports two bullets were fired, the first without incident, but the second hitting the bride in the head, passing through her brain and hitting two other people.

The police spokesman said that the bride ended up in a coma and later died although the other two people who had been shot were not in danger.

The shooter was identified as a 36-year-old who was not named but was reportedly a cousin of the groom.

The police spokesman added: “Naturally any disturbance of public order like this crosses the red line with the police need to act, and people need to know that to create a safe community shooting is banned at weddings.

“We will take tough action against anybody found to be breaking this rule.”

The family of the dead woman confirmed that instead of a bed she was now resting in the soil of the local cemetery, but that three people have been helped through the donation of her organs.

Her uncle said that she had been working as a social worker helping drug addicts to recover from their addiction and only decided to get an organ donor card three months ago.

After being told of her death, they decided to respect her wishes and arrange the organs to be donated.