A 12-year-old boy who was apparently trying to drive across Australia has been stopped by police 1,300km (800 miles) into his journey.

The boy was pulled over in Broken Hill in the New South Wales outback on Saturday after a patrol noticed the car's bumper dragging on the ground.

Police said the boy had been attempting to drive 4,000km from Kendall in NSW to Perth, Western Australia.

He was arrested and taken to Broken Hill police station.

His parents, who had reported him missing, picked him up on Sunday.

"He'd taken the family car," Det Insp Kim Fehon told the Australian Associated Press.

"His parents reported him missing immediately after he left home, so they were looking for him."

It is unclear how the boy was able to make the journey, alone and unnoticed, across all of New South Wales and through remote and often hostile terrain.

A NSW Police spokesman told the BBC it was possible he could face charges under the Young Offenders Act.