GUN fears sparked an alert at an Oxford school when a youth was spotted carrying a weapon.

Children were kept indoors and the police helicopter launched a manhunt after residents in Blackbird Leys raised the alarm.

But the "gun" turned out to be a paintball weapon when the teenager was finally tracked down.

Pupils at Northfield Special School, in Knights Road, were not allowed out after the alert at 10.20am yesterday.

Police spokesman Duncan McGraw said: "The youth was walking down the street with the gun.

"We obviously take any report of this nature very seriously and police made a thorough check of the area and questioned witnesses."

But he said no further police action would now be taken.

Paul Sheldon, Northfield headteacher, said: "The police dealt with it very efficiently.

"We took all the precautions any school needs to take to make sure there is no danger."

Paintball game organiser Adam Wyatt, of Rye Hill Golf Course in Milcombe, near Banbury said: "Paintball guns don't look like a hand pistol that a policeman would carry around. They have three parts - the machine for firing, a gas canister that looks like a soda stream bottle, and on top, a hopper where the paint balls are stored.

"But at a glance and from a distance it could look like a gun."

He added that paintball guns were covered by the same laws as air rifles and could be bought by anyone over 17.

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