A man in his 30s has been questioned in connection with a police helicopter flying over Worcestershire being hit by a laser beam.

The National Police Air Service has revealed that an aircraft being used to hunt for a vulnerable missing person was targeted over Redditch this morning.
The potentially dangerous incident led to the service using Twitter to say it would be able to pinpoint an address from where the laser originated, taking a swipe at the culprit by using the hashtag ‘#laserlout’.

An investigation was quickly launched and a laser pen has now been seized. 

The lasers can cause temporary blindness and in extreme cases cause people to suffer lasting eye damage - with the culprits who point them at aircraft liable for prison sentences.

Neither the service nor West Mercia Police were able to release any further details on who the missing person was. 

Targeted laser attacks on aircrafts have risen steeply in the past 10 years - recently a passenger jet bound for New York had to return to Heathrow after a co-pilot was affected by one. 
Across the country over the last year around 1,800 incidents have been logged over laser attacks. 
Government ministers are now set for talks with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), Public Health England, the Metropolitan Police and Trading Standards about whether to restrict the sale of lasers and change the law to classify them as offensive weapons.
Ollie Dismore, director of operations for the National Police Air Service said: “The increasing number of laser attacks on aircraft worldwide is a source of serious concern to the aviation industry. 
“In an attack, a laser pointer is deliberately or recklessly shone at airborne aircraft, sometimes persistently over a period of minutes. 
“The impact on a pilot is at the very least distracting, but can be serious enough to cause temporary flash blindness and in some cases lasting eye damage.
“The frequency of these attacks in the UK alone is increasing at a worrying rate with around 1,800 laser strikes on aircraft last year officially reported to the Civil Aviation Authority.
“What may seem harmless fun to the culprit could potentially have devastating consequences for the crew and passengers in the aircraft as well as innocent members of public on the ground.” 
He added: “The National Police Air Service is working with colleagues from across the UK aviation sector in order to manage this risk and to reduce the number of flight crews that become victims of these attacks.
“We are currently conducting a laser eyewear protection trial which we hope will better support us to protect our staff against this threat in future.”