DOCTORS are battling to save a young boy's sight after he was hit in the eye with a pellet fired from a ball bearing gun.

Rhys Taylor, 14, was shot with the low-calibre BB gun last Friday night in Tarragon Drive, Greater Leys, Oxford, and the pellet is lodged in the back of his eye.

Surgeons are still doing tests to decide whether it will be possible to remove it without damaging his eye, which has become infected.

Rhys's mother Carole Williams told The Oxford Times that the boy was out in the street, where he lives, with some friends when he was hit.

She alleged that a man was in the bedroom of his house with the BB gun near where they were playing and that her son knew the man.

He was apparently shot after a friend saw a red light shining in one of his eyes.

Police say they reacted by sending out an armed response unit on the night and getting ten officers to question and stop and search people in the area the next day.

A 33-year-old-man has been arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and bailed until October 21.

Mrs Williams said "I am just in shock. I feel numb and confused. Rhys is very low at the moment. I've been sleeping at the hospital and just been by his bedside all the time.

"He's just had a scan and the doctors are waiting for the infection to go down to see what they can do."

Rhys's aunt, Rachel WiIliams, of Nettlebed Mead, Greater Leys, added: "He could have been killed. This could ruin his life.

"Rhys was playing with his friends in the street and one friend said he could see a red light in his eye. Rhys was hit in the eye.

"The man is free to roam around and Rhys is frightened about coming out of hospital and coming home, and the family have to deal with him being there.

"He is such an active boy he loves being out and about playing football, it's not like him to be still, so lying in bed in hospital all day is really getting to him."

"I took his brothers and sisters and cousins to see him to cheer him up. My son Ellis, who is 11, went to see him on Sunday, I think it quite upset him, but he wants to go again.

Police spokesman James Clements said: "We called in an armed response unit on Friday night, and on Saturday morning we had a roaming unit of ten police officers in the area questioning and stopping and searching people.

"We had a unit at the hospital with the boy's mother asking for the names and addresses of eye witnesses."

BB guns can fire a variety of metal balls - usually made of steel - or pellets and, although they are usually low powered, are capable of killing or blinding.

Most BB guns lack accuracy and are fired using a spring piston. They often have low velocity and weak springs but large ammunition capabilities.

Multi-pump pneumatic guns are also common and use pellets as a cheaper alternative to metal balls and have a greater accuracy and power.

Other BB guns use pre-compressed gas to propel the BBs and are capable of rapid fire.

They are designed to appear identical to real pistols or rifles.

Since new legislation two years ago it has been illegal to carry a BB gun in a public place.

There have been a number of airgun and BB gun incidents in Oxfordshire in recent years.

In July, a nine-year-old girl was shot in the upper arm while out in the garden at home with her family in Bicester.

A month earlier, a 16-year-old girl was shot in the head when an attacker leaned out of a car with an airgun as she left a phone box in Banbury.

In February, Gareth Edwards, 27, of Banbury Road, Oxford, was jailed for four-and-a-half-years after a court heard he shot his girlfriend in the arm and the head, then bashed her with the gun after it jammed.

Last year, police investigated reports of an airgun used to shatter the window of a coach in Sandy Lane West in Littlemore, and ball bearing guns fired at the Grove Rugby Club clubhouse causing £2,000 damage.