Sniper on the loose

Amanda Greaves had finished her part-time cleaning job and was walking along Ann Street, Worthing, at around 8pm, when she felt a sharp pain to the side of her eye.

At the time she did not realise it, but Mrs Greaves, 40, had been shot with an air rifle.

The incident happened on Wednesday, April 2, days after Worthing police station started accepting guns as part of a month-long county-wide amnesty.

Mrs Greaves, of Shandon Road, Broadwater, said: "I was just walking along and I felt a sudden pain. I put my hand up to my face and there was blood. I assumed somebody had kicked a stone at me and my immediate reaction was that I have got to get rid of this blood.

"I couldn't see anyone around and I didn't hear anything before that"

Mrs Greaves went into the Warwick pub, the back entrance of which is in Ann Street.

She said: "The landlord and landlady were really helpful and cleaned me up and the landlord took me home."

The mother of three went away for the weekend and the wound, which was right next to her left eye, became more painful.

A friend looked at it and told her it looked like a bullet.

Mrs Greaves said: "My skin had already started to grow over the bullet when I went to the hospital and I kept waking up in the night when I was lying on it.

"I am trying not to think about what would have happened if it went closer to my eye or further up my head near my temple.

"I would not walk around Ann Street or anywhere with tall buildings when it is dark. I would like to appeal to any of the older people who have guns they may have forgotten about to hand them in at the police station so that someone else can't get their hands on them.

"I want to thank the staff at the Warwick pub and also Alan Hubbard at Worthing Hospital who really took care of me."

PC Trevor Cox, who is investigating the incident, said: "This clearly indicates the importance of the current firearms amnesty. This lady was extremely lucky not to have been hit in the eye and left permanently injured.

"I would urge anyone who knows who was responsible for the assault to contact me at Worthing police station.

"I would also appeal to people who have air weapons in their homes, or whose children own replica or ball-bearing guns that they no longer want or need, to hand them in to the police before their own child, or someone else, is injured."

New laws will soon make it an arrestable offence to possess a replica firearm or air weapon in a public place without reasonable excuse or lawful authority.