A MAN was shot with a 'slingshot or air weapon' while walking at a nature reserve in Poole last week.

Tom Squires was walking in Bourne Valley Nature Reserve on Wednesday, November 30, when he was struck from behind by a missile, which caused pain he described as a “kind of intense stinging”.

Mr Squires said the missile came from the direction of a group of four people, who he had noticed when walking.

He was walking up an incline in the park, near the skate park and the play area, when he felt an "almighty whack" in his leg. 

He said: “My initial reaction was that I’d had a branch that had smacked me in the rear that I had pushed out the way, but that wasn’t the case, and it couldn’t have been the case as there were no branches for me to have that experience anyway.

Bournemouth Echo:

“Based on the impact and the thump, and I could hear it whack into my leg, like a clap. That’s travelling at a fair velocity to impact me with such pain.”

Mr Squires said that as an ex-soldier, he is “quite robust” and carried on walking after the impact.

“I carried on with my travel. Normally if this had happened, I probably would have confronted them, but sometimes you pick your battles and common sense prevails.

"I didn’t know at that juncture that I had been shot at with either a catapult or an air rifle.”

A Dorset Police spokesperson said: “We received a report at 5.33pm on Wednesday 30 November 2022 that a man was in the area of the Bourne Valley Nature Reserve in Poole when he was struck on the leg by a slingshot or possibly an air weapon.

“It was reported that the victim had returned home safely and had not sustained any serious injuries."

The spokesperson added: “Enquiries have been carried out and no arrests have been made at this time.”