AN 84-year-old woman had a lucky escape when a window she was sat next to was smashed in a ‘drive-by attack’ on her village home.

Police say it may be linked to a similar incident in which a window at the village butchers was damaged.

Danny Moore said his mother was only saved from serious injury because the glass in their Bream High Street house was double glazed and didn’t shatter.

Forest district councillor Richard Leppington (UKIP, Bream) was criticised by police for describing the incident at Andy James’s shop as a “drive-by shooting.”

But he says the repeat attack last Tuesday morning (July 24), reportedly involving a similar silver-coloured car with alloy wheels, vindicated his original fears and the community had “every right to be concerned”.

Mr Moore, 53, who runs M&H Metal Spraying, said: “My mother lives on the ground floor flat and was in the room by the window when somebody took a shot at it.

“My mum’s of good Forest stock and is coping well, but she often sits in that window to watch the world go by, and if that glass had shattered it would have been a sad story.

“I’ve got an engineering background and the hole in the window is a .22-type calibre size, possibly an air gun pellet or ballbearing, fired from some sort of weapon. If that hit someone in the eye, it would do serious damage.

‘I really don’t care if this was done by a pistol or catapult. At the end of the day, this is the second incident of damage to property in Bream.

“Will the next one see someone really get hurt? Somebody is going around our village using a weapon that is capable of inflicting real damage. They need to be caught.

“We’ve seen the CCTV from Andy’s Butchers and it’s a silver car, with alloys and horizontal lights, passing at the time of the attack around 11am, and appears to be the same one involved in the incident next door a week or so before.

“I’ve alerted people on the street, and some of the older residents are concerned, as it can’t be a coincidence that premises in the same street have been attacked.”

Cllr Leppington said: “It doesn’t matter if it’s a pistol, a BB gun or, as the police say, a catapult – it’s a high-powered weapon of some sort to break thick security glass, and next time it could be someone’s head that gets hit. It shouldn’t be swept under the carpet.

“It looks like the damage to Danny’s window is the same sort of impact and at the same height, suggesting it was someone passing by in a car.”

Having questioned the level of policing in the 3,500-strong village and the extent to which incidents were “properly investigated”, he said he was pleased to see four police officers attend the latest incident.

Police say response crews have been made aware and “will attempt to pay passing attention.”

In a statement released with permission by Cllr Leppington, Forest Police said: “We believe that they may be linked as they both may have been caused by the same means which is as yet unclear.”

And he has repeated his call for CCTV footage to be released showing the silver car driving past Andy’s Butchers at the time of the first attack, which happened shortly before midnight on Thursday, July 12.

Cllr Leppington said

“It’s a high powered device of some sort and it’s a damn serious matter. I believe the community has every right to be concerned, and we need to catch the culprits before someone is hurt. Someone in the village will know who that car on CCTV belongs to.”