A YORK bus driver was shot in the eye by yobs firing a pellet gun as he drove through Acomb.

Police today branded the shooting "appalling" and said it was lucky the driver managed to stop without mounting the kerb as he slowed to approach a bus stop at Cornlands Road.

The shooting comes after a spate of bus attacks in the nearby Chapelfields area and York bus company First today confirmed the number 4 on Cornlands Road would be suspended tonight.

The shooting happened at 6.45pm yesterday.

The driver was hit in the eye with what police believe was a ball-bearing gun fired from a nearby garden.

Police said the pellet went through an open offside cab window before the stunned driver "glanced" the kerb and brought the vehicle to a halt. He was later treated for a bruised right eye in York Hospital.

A York police spokesman today condemned the shooting.

He said: "We are absolutely appalled by this incident - it could have been far more serious, particularly if the driver had mounted the kerb and hit a pedestrian.

"That does not really bear thinking about."

Peter Edwards, of First York, said the driver could have lost control of the bus.

He said: "The fact that there are people out there who are prepared to do this sort of stupid thing without realising what the potential consequences are is very worrying.

"Our employees should be able to go about their work without risk of this type of injury."

He said First would not run the four service down Cornlands Road tonight, and that this situation would be reviewed later today.

Mr Edwards said before any ban was lifted he needed to be satisfied that there would be no repeat for safety reasons.

The shooting comes after bus services on the Chapelfields estate were rerouted for several weeks after a string of vehicles were attacked in May. Windows on two buses were smashed when they were struck by a large rock and a metal wrench.

Vandal Kevin Iain Scott, 22, formerly of Kempton Close, Acomb, was jailed for two months for hurling a metal tool through the windscreen of a bus.

He was the first person in York to be handed a Criminal Antisocial Behaviour Order (CRASBO) as part of a drive to stamp out violence against drivers and buses.

North Yorkshire Police and First have launched the Bus STOP Bullies campaign, which pledges to ban hooligans from all First UK services.

Police today called on parents to think "very, very carefully" about letting their children use spring-loaded pellet guns.

Two 14-year-old local youths have been arrested on suspicion of assault and released on police bail pending further inquiries.

Updated: 12:27 Thursday, September 02, 2004