Boy shot in head by air rifle

A 14-year-old boy was shot in the head with an air rifle yesterday, the second incident with an air gun in Northland in just over a week.

Paihia police said the boy had surgery to remove the pellet and was recovering a home today.

An 18-year-old relative of the boy would appear in court on Tuesday charged over the incident at a home in Waitangi.

The air rifle was confiscated.

Last Friday six-year-old Tayla Scott was accidentally shot in the chest when the pellet ricocheted off a rock after her 10-year-old brother fired an air rifle.

She was rushed from her home in Waikare, a rural area near Kawakawa north of Whangarei, for emergency surgery in Auckland's Starship Children's Hospital after the pellet scraped her heart.

She is now recovering.

- NZPA