HAMPSHIRE police are hunting a gunman after a teenager was shot in the face by someone armed with an air weapon. 

The 18-year-old victim was walking past a block of flats and a green at Rowhill Drive, Dibden, when she felt a pain in her left cheek.

She went to Southampton General Hospital, where medics removed a pellet lodged in her face.

A police spokesman said: "The victim didn't see anyone with a gun and did not initially realise that she had been hit with an air pellet.

"It is not known as this time if the victim was specifically targeted."

No further details have been released but the teenager was not seriously hurt and is understood to have gone home after treatment.

It is the latest in a series of incidents involving people being injured by air weapons in Hampshire and other parts of the south.

Three months ago a gun was fired out of a moving car in Southampton.

Police were called to Wakefield Road after someone in a grey or silver-coloured BMW pointed an air weapon at the windscreen out of a van that was travelling along the same street.

The driver of the van, a 32-year-old man from Hampshire, was unhurt.

Two teenage boys were arrested in connection with the incident but police said they were released and would face no further action.

Pets have also been targeted by people armed with air weapons.

Earlier this year a Hampshire councillor and his family were left devastated after one of their pet cats was shot and fatally wounded.

Cllr David Rice-Mundy, the deputy mayor of New Milton, warned other pet lovers to be vigilant following the death of ten-year-old Polly.

The timid tabby was shot with an air rifle and died despite an emergency operation that went on until the early hours.

The Dibden shooting occurred last Saturday at 4pm.

Anyone with information is asked to ring police on 101, quoting 44170126745, or contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.