A TEENAGE boy has been charged with causing grievous bodily harm after an incident in which a canoeist was shot in the eye with an air weapon.

The 13-year-old boy has been bailed to appear before Tynedale Youth Court, in Northumberland, on September 6.

A 17-year-old girl, from Morpeth, required surgery in Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary to remove an air gun pellet from her eye after she was shot while canoeing on the River Tyne, at Hexham, earlier this month.

She was last night making a good recovery and will not, as had been first feared, lose the sight in her eye.

A 14-year-old boy has received a caution for what police described as a minor firearms offence.