Flaming arrow stunt goes badly wrong on America's Got Talent

Daredevil contestant Ryan Stock, who performs with his partner AmberLynn, admits he's "fortunate to walk away" after the arrow missed the target (which he was holding in his mouth) and hit his body instead.

Stock was visibly stunned as he was seen brushing flames off of him, later explaining it was an "unfortunate mechanical failure".

We had a serious mishap tonight outage live on @nbcagt. A very unfortunate mechanical failure but I am very fortunate to walk away from it.

— Ryan Stock (@comedydaredevil) August 3, 2016

The judging panel - which includes show creator Simon Cowell - were quick to insist Stock received medical attention.

Cowell said: “Why are we judging this act?” according to Fox News, adding: “Amber just shot Ryan and he needs to go to a hospital now.”

As it turns out, the act was supposed to see the flaming arrow shoot down Ryan's throat.

"The string slipped off the arrow 'coz the notch broke and it sent it sideways. Not at full power luckily because of the way it slipped," said Ryan afterwards.

"I didn’t die on national telly in front of millions of people - I’m sure that would have gone viral, people would have liked that. Everyone wants to know if we’re OK," he told Robert Herrera backstage after the incident.

The duo say it's the first time the stunt has gone wrong, having rehearsed it "ten times a day, every day for three months".

"I got lucky, I feel lucky to walk away unscathed. It looked serious."

Ryan promises to upload a video of how it was supposed to look, but he jokes most will still want to watch this mishap version...

Results from the live show will be announced on tonight's episode on NBC