11-year-old boy suffers fractured skull after air gun shooting in Leyland

Police say they have identified a person of interest after an 11-year-old boy was shot in the head with a metal pellet in Lancashire.

The boy was playing football with his friends in a garden on Roadtrain Avenue in Leyland at around 7:20pm on Monday 19 May when the incident happened.

The child had climbed over the garden fence to get back his ball, which had been kicked over.

As scaled the fence, he was hit in the head by a metal pellet fired from what Lancashire Police believe to be an air weapon.

The boy suffered a fractured skull and was taken to Alder Hey Children's hospital for surgery. He is now recovering.

Lancashire Police say they will be speaking to another juvenile 'in due course' about the investigation.

Det Con Paul Brown, of South CID, said: “This incident has left a young boy with some really significant injuries, and it is fortunate he was not more seriously hurt or even killed.

“We are carrying out a number of enquiries to try and identify the person or persons responsible and I would appeal to anyone who saw what happened, has any dashcam or Ring doorbell footage, or who has any information which could assist our investigation to get in touch.

“I’m sure someone in the local community knows who is responsible for what’s happened to this young boy and I would urge them to come and speak to us."

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