A FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD boy was blasted with an air rifle as he walked through Bury Cemetery with friends.

It was the area's second shooting in a fortnight.

In the latest incident, on Friday (April 16), Simon Castle was shot in the knee. He needed a 45-minute operation to have the pellet removed.

The teenager, of South Bank Road, is now walking with the aid of two sticks. Doctors say his injuries will take around six weeks to heal.

Simon, a pupil at St Gabriel's RC High School, said: "I was walking through the cemetery with six friends when I felt pain in my left knee."

When he looked at his leg, blood was pouring from the wound. "One of my friends ran to my home and another called the ambulance with his mobile phone."

Simon underwent an operation at Bury General Hospital and was kept in for two days.

Surgeons told him the pellet had lodged extremely close to the knee bone.

"They recovered the pellet and told me it was from a .22 air rifle."

Simon is recovering at home after his ordeal, which happened on Friday night. "My knee is still very painful and I find it quite difficult to walk," he said.

"I didn't see who shot me. We didn't see anyone with an air rifle at that time."

Two weeks ago, a 16-year-old boy was hit on the head with an air pellet while walking in Gigg Lane, Bury.

Despite the fact both shootings occurred in the same vicinity, there is no definite link as yet, say police.

Detective Sergeant Dave Maguire of Bury police crime management unit, said: "There is nothing to suggest they were the work of the same person."

Police are anxious to talk to anyone who may have seen someone in the St Peter's Road end of the cemetery armed with an air rifle around 8pm.

Call either Bury police crime managment unit on 856 8157 or freephone CrimeStoppers, in confidence, on 0800 555 111.

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