A 12-year-old boy has died after being shot by police in Ohio after reportedly brandishing a realistic looking airsoft gun at a recreation centre.

Tamir Rice passed away in the early hours of Sunday, a day after police shot him at a playground.

A 911 call was made to Cleveland Police shortly before 3.30pm on Saturday by a caller who told dispatchers twice that the gun was "probably fake".

In the recording, he says: "There is a guy with a pistol... It’s probably fake, but he’s pointing it at everybody."

Towards the end, he adds: "You know it's probably fake, but it's scaring the **** out of everyone."

Deputy chief of police Ed Tomba said one officer fired twice after the boy pulled the "fake weapon" which was lacking the orange safety indicator usually found on the muzzle.

He said: "The boy did not make any verbal threats but grabbed the replica hand gun after being told to raise his hands, that’s when the officer fired."

Both officers have been placed on administrative leave which is standard procedure.

The police department are investigating the circumstances as are the FBI’s "use of deadly force" team.

Jeff Follmer, president of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association, said the officers were not told that the 911 caller suspected the gun might have been fake.

He said the officers were dispatched to the playground outside a city recreation centre and saw the pistol sitting on a table or bench.

He said they watched as the boy grabbed the weapon and put it in his waistband.

An attorney for the boy's family, Timothy Kucharski, said Tamir went to the park with friends, but he did not know the details of what led to the shooting.

"I don't want to make a rush to judgement," he said.

Daniel Michael Margolis, a local criminal lawyer, told Sky News: "Whether the gun was real or not is immaterial. The officers have to assume it’s real, especially because it looks real.

"They’re certainly not going to trust the observation of the 911 caller. There are also cases where orange safety indicators have been painted on real guns to make them look like replicas."