Sep 02, 2013 09:04 AM EDT By Staff Reporter, UniversityHerald Reporter

An intern at the University of Arkansas (UA) athletics marketing department suffered a leg injury Saturday after a T-shirt gun exploded during the Razorbacks' season-opening football game against Louisiana-Lafayette.

The incident took place soon after kickoff when the unidentified man was trying to fire single-shot t-shirt cannon into the crowd at the Reynolds Razorback Stadium. At the same time, the device malfunctioned for some reason and injured his leg, the Arkansas Online reports.

Till now, the cause of the gun's detonation is unknown.

Witnesses throughout the stadium heard the loud bang and the release of air pressure. They also saw part of the T-shirt gun strike an overhang above the lower level of the east grandstands.

The man immediately fell to the ground on the explosion. The medical staff took him on a stretcher from the stadium to the Washington Regional Medical Center.

T-shirt guns, which are power-driven by high-pressure air tanks, are used at several UA sporting events. They are designed to blast shirts throughout the stadium. Although they come in different sizes, most of them can fire a shirt up to the second level of a stadium, according to the Bleacher Report.

The University of Arkansas, also referred to as U of A, UARK, or just UA is a public, co-educational, land-grant, space-grant research university. It is the main campus of the University of Arkansas System which comprises six other campuses within the state - the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, the University of Arkansas at Monticello, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

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