AN arrow shattered the window of a house in Worcester while an unsuspecting pensioner was sitting in her front room.

The "terrifying" incident happened in Penhill Crescent, St John's, while 73-year-old Anita Griffiths was sitting in the front room.

She heard a loud bang and initially thought something had fallen into the garden.

But when her son Les Bayliss, who lives in the same house, went outside into the garden he discovered the shocking truth.

He said: "I was just letting the dog out when I saw something lying on the path. At first I thought it was one of the sticks that Mum uses in the garden, but when I picked it up, I realised it was an arrow."

The pair saw that one of the upper panes of the house's conservatory was broken, and realised what must have happened.

"The arrow broke through the first pane of the triple-glazed window, and then must have bounced back into the garden," said Mr Bayliss, a fitter at engineering company Mazak.

"My mum spends time in the garden, and she could have been standing there when it came into the garden and got hurt.

"She's 73 and not in the best of health, and it could have hurt her bouncing back off the conservatory.

"Someone must have been shooting at a bird or something and it just went further than they wanted it to I hope that if they see this, their conscience will lead them to apologise and offer to pay for the repair to the conservatory."

The arrow is made by Easton, a leading manufacturer of arrows, whose products are used by many leading archers.

St John's councillor Richard Udall said he was shocked to hear about the incident and is calling for anyone with information to come forward.

He said: "It's unprecedented. I've never heard of anything like this happening in St Johns before, and we certainly don't want it happening again.

"It's terrifying to think of arrows flying into people's gardens like that and we can only hope it was an accident.

"If anyone knows about it, I would urge them to call the police."

Police are investigating, and anyone with information can call 101, quoting incident number 0578s/020416.