YOUTHS fired a BB gun at a grandmother's bedroom window as she lay in bed.

Pam Nobbs described her shock at the shooting, particularly since she spends a lot of time helping local youngsters.

She has voluntarily cleaned and supervised the playground behind her home, in Edwin Road, Wilmington, for the last three years.

Each day the 65-year-old makes sure the children playing there are safe, picks up any litter and locks the immaculate facility each night.

But the grandmother of two said she had “lost faith” after a group of youngsters in the playground fired the gun at her home.

Mrs Nobbs was in bed when she heard the playground gate bang at about 8.30am last Wednesday.

She said: “I looked out of the window and I could see a group of them in the playground picking up stones and throwing them at my back fence.

“I saw them whispering to each other. They ran off, then something hit my window and I jumped out of bed. I was really shaken up.”

Mrs Nobbs said she called the police and Wilmington Enterprise College, whose school uniform she thought the children were wearing.

Within minutes, she said, a member of staff was with her and showed her a book of pictures of all the pupils, but Mrs Nobbs said she struggled to identify them because they were too far away.

The school has launched an investigation into the shooting, but the culprits have not yet been found.

A spokesman for Wilmington Enterprise College said: “One of our aims is to ensure we work with our local community to establish a good working partnership.“

Any issues reported to us by members of the public are dealt with swiftly and students know that poor behaviour outside the college, when students are on their way to college or on their way home, are dealt with in accordancewith our sanctions process.

“The incident in question led to further investigations at the college.”