DETECTIVES have launched a fresh appeal for witnesses to a sniper-style attack in which a 61-year-old Wilmslow woman was shot in the face.

She had been walking with her husband along Dean Row Road on March 20 when she was hit close to her eye by a pellet fired from an air gun.

Cheshire police, who are treating the attack as assault occasioning grievous bodily harm, said the victim did not see where the shot was fired from.

She was left évery shakené and taken to hospital to have the pellet removed from her skull.

A spokesman for Cheshire Police said: éWe are treating this incident very seriously and are appealing for anyone with any information to contact us so the offender can be brought to justice.

éWe are especially appealing for the occupants of a blue family saloon vehicle to come forward é a man and woman with a small child. They offered to help the victim, but she declined.é

The woman was walking towards the Summerfield pub, just past the railway bridge, when she was shot.

Police believe the pellet was fired from the Colshaw Farm Estate side of the road, or from a passing car.

Shocked residents in the Dean Row Road area said that over the weekend of the attack young children had been seen with an air gun é also called a BB gun.

Summerfield pub landlord Nick Quinn, said: éOne of my regulars told me there were kids on the Colshaw estate running around with an air pistol who could only have been seven or eight.é

A local shopkeeper, who did not want to be identified, added: éLast week, a customer came in and said he had come out of the Lidl supermarket and young children started firing at him.é

Other residents claimed the shooting was an escalation of youth problems.

Mike Watson, of Lime Walk, said: éWe have a lot of youth nuisance here. You have to wonder at the mentality of someone who will hide away and shoot at a passer-by.é

Anyone with any information can contact PC Neil Jones on 01625 610000, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.