A MAN and his girlfriend were shot several times when a gunman opened fire through the front room window of their Horwich home.

The couple's two-year-old daughter was in the ground floor flat in St Bride's Close with them when the man began firing randomly with a handgun.

He is believed to have knocked on the window before shooting blindly from the front garden through the closed curtains.

At least four shots were fired at about 7.15pm last night.

The 25-year-old man was hit three times in the groin and the woman, aged 20, was shot in the shoulder.

They were both taken to the Royal Bolton Hospital.

The injured man is being kept in for observation and his girlfriend was due to undergo surgery later today.

Police are still hunting the gunman, who was wearing a pale grey hooded top and the weapon he used.

Detectives will interview the couple in the next few days but the motive is not yet known.

The Armed Response Unit were sent to the scene after receiving reports of a shooting incident and the area was sealed off. The woman had recently moved back to her parents' home in Winsford, Cheshire. She had returned to the flat to pick up some belongings.

Her boyfriend was also due to move out this week.

Shocked neighbours were stunned. One said: "We can't believe something like this has happened here.

"I don't really know the couple so I don't know why someone would want to shoot at their house."