THE mother of a boy who was shot as he walked to school is calling for a ban on airguns.

Eleven-year-old Arnold Robertson, from, Loftus, east Cleveland, was hit in the leg yesterday at about 8.20am, as he walked to Freebrough Community College. He managed to carry on to school, where the alarm was raised.

The incident, near Rosecroft Woods, happened on the day an 18,000-signature petition calling for a change in the airgun law was handed to the Prime Minister.

The boy's mother, Sarah Limon, said: "Apparently, guns have been confiscated off quite a few people in Loftus, which I didn't know about, but I think they should be banned altogether.

"You can see the mark on his leg that the pellet has made. There is a junior school right next door - what would have happened if the bullet had hit one of the little children?

"It was a bit of a shock when the headteacher rang and said he had been shot. All sorts of things ran through my mind until they said he was all right."

PC Eddie O'Hara said: "I believe this was a deliberate incident and had the shot gone higher and hit the boy's eye, it could have had serious consequences."

Last year, 15-year-old Nicola Diston was blinded in one eye after being shot near her home in Gateshead.

Yesterday, Councillor Peter Mole from Gateshead Borough Council presented a petition to Tony Blair calling for owning an airgun without a licence to be made an offence.

Campaigners also want a minimum age of 21 to own such a weapon.