An American teenager and deadeye marksman saved his sister from a kidnapping recently when he used his crude but effective weapon — a slingshot — to wound the attacker.

An eight-year-old girl was searching for mushrooms last week in her backyard in Alpena Township, Michigan when an unknown man jumped out of the woods and grabbed her, police in the northern US state said in a statement sent Monday to AFP.

A struggle ensued. But when the young victim managed to break free, that is when her 13-year-old brother foiled the attempted abduction.

The boy, who witnessed the assault, “shot the suspect with his slingshot in the head and chest,” police said.

The aggressor fled the scene, but authorities canvassed the area and eventually found and arrested a 17-year-old male with “obvious signs of an injury consistent with those that would have been sustained from the slingshot strikes,” according to police.

The suspect was charged with one count of attempted kidnapping and child enticement and will be tried as an adult. (AFP)