Updated: A MAN was shot in the head when a pheasant shoot near York went disastrously wrong.

The 45-year-old, named locally as Darren Allison, of Strensall, spent Saturday night in hospital and returned home yesterday.

The incident sparked a police inquiry involving members of the shooting party and the firearms licensing authority.

The drama began shortly before noon on Saturday when a group of shooters were hunting pheasants on farmland near Woodhouse Lane, north of Strensall.

At 11.34am, the party made a 999 call that brought an ambulance crew from the Yorkshire Ambulance Service, the Yorkshire Air Ambulance and police to the scene.

Paul Richardson, duty manager at North Yorkshire Police control, said a 45-year-old man had received a “grazing gunshot wound to the head”.

After treatment by paramedics at the scene he was taken to York Hospital by road ambulance and was detained overnight. He has since been released home. Police spoke to members of the shooting party and decided no offences had been committed. No-one was arrested at the scene. Police were treating the incident as an accident.

The remainder of that day’s shoot was abandoned.