POLICE were this week hunting a group of callous thugs behind the shooting of a swan on the River Avon in Evesham.

They were alerted after a local woman and her family spotted a group of three youths, aged between 15 and 18, armed with what appeared to be two air rifles.

The couple had parked their car in the rugby field and pulled in on the other side of the river, at Hampton.

"While I was walking with my four-year-old son along the river, I heard shots," she said.

"I looked across to see the youths shooting at anything and everything in the copse over the other side of the river.

"I went back to where my partner was as I was frightened they would hit us or, more to the point, my son."

The woman, whom the Journal is not naming, went on: "By the time I had got back to my partner we saw a swan swim past us with blood all down its neck.

"At this time we called 999 and waited for the police to arrive. They came and called the swan rescue people.

"The swan rescue man turned up and we spent about an hour and a half trying to get the swan out of the water but the poor thing was too frightened. All this time, its "mate" didn't leave its side."

PC Dave Shortell, who is heading the investigation, said that a colleague had seen a group of youths in the area some time before the incident, although it was not known if they were the ones responsible.

He said inquiries into the incident were continuing.

Swan Rescue Centre volunteer John Payne said when he eventually caught the swan it was taken immediately to a local vet.

"It appears, from what the witnesses saw and what the vet learned, that the bird was probably winged by a pellet which doesn't appear to have penetrated.

"There were no internal injuries shown up in the X-ray, although the whole neck is very swollen. The injured swan's mate has remained with it the whole time."

Mr Payne, who has acted as a volunteer catcher for the rescue centre for 25 years, covering the stretch between Tewkesbury and Bidford, and has now been joined by his son Douglas, said that swan numbers were down on the Avon this year, but declined to speculate on the likely reasons.

"We have had no other recent reports of swans being shot in this particular area," he said.