A GUNMAN who blinded a girl in one eye was heard to laugh running from the scene of the shooting.

Nicola Diston, 15, of Gateshead, has made a tearful public appeal for her attacker, who was using an airgun, to come forward and for youngsters to stop using the firearms.

The schoolgirl was out with friends in the Felling area of Gateshead last Friday night when she felt a pain in her eye.

She had been shot and will never recover the sight in one eye after the pellet badly damaged her optic nerve. Doctors will not be able to remove the pellet.

It had been thought that just one person had been involved, but police yesterday confirmed that it was thought a number of people were implicated. Detective sergeant Ian Bentham said: "The inquiry is progressing and it does appear there were a number of people involved in discharging the firearms. We can confirm there were sounds of laughter heard from the group after the weapon was fired."

Northumbria Police said that in the first ten months of this year they were called to 562 incidents where air weapons have been seen.