Teen fights for life after harpoon attack

A teenage boy was fighting for his life in hospital today after a three-pronged harpoon was shot into his eye during a late night row.

The harpoon, which has a head consisting of three prongs several inches long and several inches apart, lodged in the 15-year-old’s face after being fired during the fracas in Thatcham, Berkshire.

Surgeons at the John Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford were today trying to save the boy’s life by removing the bolt, which caused horrific injuries.

The teenager’s family were at his bedside, and he was said to be in a critical condition, said a Thames Valley Police spokeswoman.

She said: “We thought that somebody had stabbed him with the harpoon, but we now believe he was shot with the harpoon.

“It has three prongs, two inches apart, and all three are embedded into his face.”

It is understood the row began at around 11am on Saturday night next to a telephone kiosk outside a small block of flats in Park Avenue, Thatcham.

A neighbour of the flats, who did not wish to be identified, said she saw the teenager standing by the telephone box talking to a girl when a taxi pulled up and a man got out.

“The teenager was standing talking to a girl outside the telephone box,” she said.

“The man got out of the taxi and gave him a lot of abuse, but he was not doing anything - he was just talking to the girl.

“She told the man to calm down, but he just kept coming back for more. It was an argument over nothing.”

The neighbour said the man then went into one of the flats and the teenager, who lives just a few hundred yards away, left the scene.

She said she woke up about 20 minutes later to see police outside and a casualty being lifted into an ambulance.

“All this has happened over nothing,” she said. “Whatever was said, there was no need for this.”

Police confirmed that the initial argument which led to the shooting was about vandalism.

Initial reports suggested a group of up to 20 youths had been loitering by the telephone box before the row between the man and the 15-year-old.

Detective Inspector John Purnell, of Newbury CID, said it appeared that the 15-year-old had returned to the scene with two older men about 20 minutes after the row had ended.

It is understood they then called at the man’s flat and a fight occurred in the small communal area outside, during which the man was stabbed and the teenager shot with the harpoon.

The man, who is aged 25, suffered a stab wound to his stomach and was taken to the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading.

His injuries are not thought to be life threatening and detectives hoped to interview him later. Mr Purnell said: “This is mind boggling.

“I have never come across anything like it in my 27 years of policing.

“We are appealing for witnesses. I think there are probably several people from the group of youths that were by the telephone kiosk who will know what was said to make people so angry.”

Police were on the scene within minutes and two men, both aged in their 20s, were arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm to the 25-year-old man.

They were being held at Newbury Police Station and were due to be questioned by detectives later today.