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A man has been arrested by Indian police after allegedly mistakenly shooting dead his neighbour a pre-wedding party.

To celebrate his daughter's upcoming wedding, police says Ashok Khosla fired shots into the air, hiting his neighbour, 22 year-old Sakshi Arora, who was  on her terrace in the forehead, killing her on the spot.

This is a common and troubling, occurrence in recent times as several people have been killed by "celebratory gunfire" at weddings in northern India in recent years.

Police arrested Mr Khosla, the father of the bride saying the bullet came from his revolver during the party in Punjab's Hoshiarpur and his friend Ahok Sethi, who had a complaint lodged against him for allegedly firing a rifle.

A police spokesman said "The accused were not professional shooters and they should have known the bullet can hit anyone." 

In Indian states of Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, several of such incidents occur every year but it is uncertain the number of people killed or injured due to it.

In November 2016, a wedding guest was killed and three others critically injured, when a woman started shooting while she was on the dance floor. Similarly, in December 2016, a 25-year-old dancer was allegedly shot dead by a drunk man while she was performing at a wedding as several guests were said to have firing into the air that evening.

In November last year, a celebratory gun fire killed an eight-year-old boy at a wedding function.

The act of celebratory gunfire seen as show of machismo and status, is not restricted to India, as it is also common in Afghanistan and parts of the Middle East, Balkans elsewhere