THE VICTIM of a sniper attack in a Basingstoke park has spoken of his ordeal - and is urging the gunman to give himself up.

Brett Lefley, 27, was shot in the back as he walked through the War Memorial Park with a friend on his way home from a Christmas party.

The bullet from the attack, which Hampshire police firearms experts say was probably fired from a pistol, is still lodged in his chest as shown in the X-ray picture on this page.

This week, Mr Lefley spoke exclusively to The Gazette as Home Office minister David Blunkett announced he is gearing up for a firearms amnesty, aimed at getting guns off the streets.

Mr Lefley was shot on a misty night at 1.30am on December 14 as he walked past a children's playground.

Recalling the terrifying moment he was hit, Mr Lefley said: "I heard a bang and I felt as though someone had punched me in the back. I carried on walking, thinking that I'd imagined it, and then the pain grew worse. I found my energy was lagging and I was having trouble breathing.

"I eventually ended up kneeling on the floor to try to regain my strength and it began to sink in that I had been shot.

"At that point, I got up, and started sprinting through the park to see where the person was who had shot me. I was so angry, because there was no reason for it.

"I didn't know I was making it worse. All the time I was running, blood was pouring into my lung and I have a blood condition, so it was more of a problem than it would be for another person. I eventually lay down on the ground, exhausted."

As he waited, semi-conscious, for an ambulance to come, a man in his 30s, with short, dark hair, approached Mr Lefley and his friend and asked if everything was alright, before disappearing back into the fog.

He was not seen again, but the police would like to trace him.

The bullet punctured Mr Lefley's lung, fractured a rib and chipped his spine. He had to have painful chest drains inserted and needed a major transfusion after losing half his blood.

This left him weak and sore. Mr Lefley said the psychological damage will take longer to heal. He has dropped two stone in weight and has been unable to sleep, replaying the shooting in his head.

Mr Lefley, who lives in Gainsborough Road, Basingstoke, said: "Something that is always on my mind is how lucky I was, because there was someone with me to call an ambulance. The bullet entered my back half a centimetre into my spine. If I'd hiccuped or missed a step, I could have been paralysed."

Mr Lefley is appealing to the gunman to give himself up.

"I have got no malice towards you," he said.

"It would be nice to know why it happened and to ensure you can get some help so that you don't feel you have to do it again and maybe get yourself into some really bad trouble."

Detective Constable Martyn Lillywhite, of Basingstoke police - who said Mr Lefley was in the wrong place at the wrong time - thinks the gunman may have been standing in the children's playground when he carried out the unprovoked attack.

He said the police, who have carried out house-to-house inquiries and put up posters about the shooting around the town, are following up leads into the attack but want more information.

"If this was an accidental shooting, we would ask the person responsible to contact us. We would like to hear from anyone else who knows anything about this incident as well," he said.

The detective also wants to speak to anyone who can elaborate on a report of a gun shot and shouting from the direction of Costello Technology College on December 6, which may or may not be connected to the shooting of Mr Lefley a week later.

Anyone with information about the incident should contact Det Con Lillywhite on 01256 405018 or the confidential Crimestoppers line on 0800 555 111.