THE family of an 11-year-old boy fear he has suffered permanent eye damage after being shot at point-blank range with a ball bearing gun.

Connor Shears, of Sarah Street, Darwen, was playing with a friend in a flat over a shop in Blackburn Road when the incident happened.

The boys, who are both in year 7 at Darwen Vale High School, had been shooting objects such as tin cans inside the flat.

The gun they were using had only been bought by the father of the uninjured boy the previous day.

While the other boy, also aged 11, was handling the gun, a bullet hit Connor just under the pupil in his right eye.

Crying out in pain and with his vision badly affected, he left the flat and was spotted by a neighbour who drove him the short distance home.

Connor’s stepmum Nicola Carter, 24, said: “The first thing I knew was when he came in and he was hysterical.

“He was saying ‘I’ve been shot, I’m going to be blind, I’m going to be blind’.

“When we looked, the bottom of his eye was completely black and the the rest red and really blood-shot. The eye was sticking out and looked about twice the size of his other one.

“Then my partner, Connor’s dad, and I started to panic. He threw a phone to me screaming to call ambulance and the police.”

Connor was initially taken to the Royal Blackburn Hospital but was then transferred to a specialist eye hospital at Burnley General.

Nicola said: “They told us at the hospital that he has been very lucky - if it had been millimeters higher, he’d have been blinded.

“The bullet hit his eye and dented it. It’s all bruised and bleeding behind the eye and his vision is still blurred.

“The light makes it sting and he’s been given some special lotion to put around it four times a day.

“The doctors said that he’s not allowed to do any big movements because if it starts bleeding then that’s when he could lose the eye.

“We’ve got to go back to the hospital on Thursday to have a check up. It’s very worrying because we still don’t know the long term affects.”

She added: “I’m absolutely fuming about this.

“There’s no way 11-year-olds should have guns - they are so dangerous.

“There needs to be some kind of better policing of them because it seems that anyone can go and pick one of these guns up and cause serious damage.

“There is absolutely no way that Connor is ever going near a BB gun or somebody using one again.”

Detective Sergeant Ian Georgarty of Darwen CID confirmed that police had launched an investigation into the incident and were treating it seriously.

People under the age of 14 are only allowed to use a BB gun whilst under the direct supervision and control of someone over 21, whilst on private property with the permission of the owner of the premises.

Consultant Opthalmologist Mohammed Alarbi said: “A BB gun can cause an awful lot of damage, in the same way as a firework.

“Of course a lot depends on the distance the gun is fired from, but even from quite a distance, it can cause severe bruising of the lid and cornea.

“In more severe cases, a BB pellet can cause bleeding in the back of the eye, a build-up of pressure causing glaucoma, and cataracts. It can cause blindness through retinal detachment, which is a very serious condition.”

A spokesman for the Royal Society for Prevention of Accidents said: “The most important thing is to remember that these guns are not toys.

“We still hear of people being blinded or scarred for life because of them.

“If people want to use a BB gun please be very careful and if children are involved make sure that they are fully supervised.

“We recommend that people wishing to use BB guns or air rifles join a club.”