A CONCERNED mother is calling for tighter controls of airguns after her young son was shot in the thigh by a mystery sniper.

Schoolboy Patrick Duker, aged 15, of Somerton Road, Breightmet, was shot as he was walking home along a dimly-lit road.

Police and paramedics were called after the teenager was spotted lying injured on the pavement near Wagon Road.

He was taken to the Royal Bolton Hospital where doctors decided to leave the pellet lodged in his thigh above his knee, fearing its removal would cause muscle damage to his leg.

Recovering at home today, Patrick said he collapsed after being shot.

The teenager said: "It felt like a really bad dead leg then after two minutes it went really stiff and I could not walk."

His mother Julia Duker, aged 37, a childminder, added: "I got a call telling me that Patrick had been shot with a pellet and went straight to the hospital.

"He was very lucky. They say they are only airgun pellets but they can still kill people.

"It could have gone through a windscreen and hit a driver. They were obviously just firing at everyone and anyone."

She said: "There should be tighter controls of airguns and who uses them."

Patrick, a pupil at Bolton College, reckons the shot was fired from the nearby Sevenacres Country Park, but added: "I have no idea who did it."

A police spokesman said: "Inquiries are continuing. There have been no arrests so far."

The shooting is the latest in a spate of incidents involving air rifles.

Father-of-three Allan Derbyshire, of Wellington Street, Farnworth, called for airguns to be outlawed in August after his son Jason, aged 13, was shot in the head at point blank range by one of his friends who did not realise the rifle was loaded.

Jason recovered after emergency surgery at the Royal Bolton Hospital and no charges were brought.

Mother-of-two Michelle George, aged 31, of Breightmet, was also shot in the neck with a pellet from a mystery sniper as she walked home from a Robbie Williams concert last October.

The RSPCA has also called for a law banning under-18s from using airguns. Bolton has a shameful catalogue of attacks.

In February 2000, youngsters aged 10 were seen killing birds in the cemetery next to Westhoughton Parish Church.

In April 2000, a yob shot a nine-month-old kitten in Harwood. Other animals in the district were also targeted by a mystery offender. In December last year a cygnet and a swan were shot dead at Starmount Lodges in Radcliffe. A third bird was badly injured.