Parents were today urged to confiscate air weapons from their children after a toddler was injured in a drive-by shooting.

The boy was shot in the ear from a passing car as he waited at a bus stop in Newington Avenue, Southend, with his mother at 12.50pm yesterday.

The toddler became the fifth child to be injured by an airgun pellet in the Southend and Shoebury areas in the past 48 hours.

As a result of the spate of shootings, police have called on parents to stop their children playing with potentially dangerous air weapons.

Published Tuesday August 17, 2004

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