A teenage boy suffered gruesome injuries when he was shot in the back of the head in Thundersley by a sniper with an airgun.

Doctors at Basildon Hospital discovered the pellet had hit the boy's skull and slipped under his scalp around to the side of his head.

The 15-year-old Canvey boy was out with friends in Thundersley's Coombe wood when he felt a sharp pain to the back of his head. The blow knocked him to the ground.

He was taken to hospital by ambulance where the pellet was surgically removed.

A police spokesman said: "If this was deliberate, it was a vicious and evil act. If it was accidental, it was very, very careless.

"Nobody has come forward to own up and no suspects were seen by the victim and his friends. We are anxious to hear from witnesses."

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