A man is set to face magistrates after an incident in which a passing policeman was hit in the face by a stream of water from a high-powered novelty water gun.

The incident, in a County Durham market town square, happened as the officer drove past in his marked van with his side window wound down.

Road worker Gary Parker, 26, maintains that if he hit the officer it was accidental and has claimed the policeman was ''out of order'' by using CS spray to arrest him.

Durham Police said the incident could have had serious consequences and that the subsequent use of CS spray was necessary.

A force spokesman said: ''A police officer was driving through the market place with the window of his vehicle rolled down when he was hit in the face at close range by a jet from a pressurised water pistol.

''The officer was momentarily blinded and for a brief period had difficulty controlling his vehicle.''

Mr Parker had been to his parent's pub, the Bonny Moor Hen, in Stanhope, when the incident happened on Sunday evening. His mother Margaret had been celebrating her 47th birthday earlier in the day and the water gun had been in the pub's garden along with other novelty toys and a paddling pool, which the family had been using for the celebrations.

Mr Parker, of Bondisle Way, Stanhope, said that he and some friends had been having water pistol fights in the main square and that some vehicles had been hit during that.

He said today: ''I can't believe it went as far as it did. Fair enough, if he had had a word with me but to spray me with CS gas was out of order.''

Mr Parker is due to appear at Bishop Auckland Magistrates Court, on Wednesday, August 13, charged with a public order offence, resisting arrest and causing danger to a road user.