A Mother and her young daughter were shot at by youths with an air gun as they got into their car outside a Rodbourne newsagents.

The pellet bounced off Helen Morgan's windscreen just seconds after her eight-year-old daughter Sarah Jane closed the car door, leaving a bullet shaped dent in the glass.

The 29-year-old managed to grab hold of one of the children she saw firing at her on Tuesday evening. But it was another three hours before police, who were short of officers because of Swindon Town's match against Cambridge, arrived to speak to her.

The mum is the latest victim of a string of air gun attacks in the town.

Most recently a shot was fired at shopkeeper Terry Acathan, also in Rodbourne, in July as he was standing outside his On Ya Bike cycle shop in Rodbourne Road. He fell to the ground as it smashed a window directly behind where he was standing.

In April, a tax officer narrowly escaped injury when a mystery object, thought to be an air gun pellet, shattered a window near his desk on the fourth floor of Swindon's Inland Revenue Building.

Elderly residents in Wootton Bassett's Poets estate have also been victims of airgun attacks which have repeatedly broken their windows.

The attack left Mrs Morgan, who also has a two-year-old son, Ryan, shocked and furious.

"I was fuming. My main concern was for my daughter because she had literally only just shut the car door," she said.

"My sister and daughter had come to pick me up from Long's Newsagents in Morrison Street where I work when it happened.

"The youths obviously thought it was a laugh but if it had hit us, one of us could have been seriously injured.

"I got out of the car and grabbed one of them and asked him who did it but they all denied it. Then I called the police.

"They said they would send someone straight away because the gang was still hanging around, but at 9pm I had to call again. They finally came to my house at 11.10pm but it was night shift officers who didn't really know what had happened."

Police spokeswoman Alvina Kumar confirmed the air gun attack had happened and appealed for witnesses to come forward.

"We received a report at 8.14pm on Tuesday of damage to the windscreen of a car parked in Morrison Street while the driver was in it. She alleged a pellet had been fired at the windscreen causing £250 of damage," she said.

"Due to operational commitments a police unit was unable to respond straight away. However an officer did attend and recorded the complaint which is now being investigated."

Anyone who has any information is asked to contact Swindon police on 528111.