A mother today told of her horror after children playing in a London cul-de-sac discovered a handgun hidden in a bush.
Nurse Marta Zambrzycka raced outside when her terrified daughter Victoria, nine, raised the alarm and saw a three-year-old boy waving the weapon at his young friends.
Police called to Grace Close in Mottingham, south-east London, on Wednesday took the firearm away for examination.
Ms Zambrzycka, 38, said: “The kids were all playing outside, there were five of them and suddenly my daughter came back into the house quite shocked and scared and said ‘I think we’ve found a gun’.
“I went outside and saw a little three-year-old boy aiming the gun at all the other kids. I was absolutely shocked and very frightened.”
The nurse, who also has an 18-year-old son, added: “I had no idea if it was loaded. If it was loaded there could have been a very serious accident.”
Police said the weapon had been passed on to a specialist firearms officer to determine whether it was live and where it had come from.
A Scotland Yard spokesperson said: “We can confirm that police were called at approximately 6.30pm on Wednesday to reports of a gun found in Grace Close, Mottingham. The gun was found in a bush by a group of children.
“Officers from Lewisham were called to the scene. A gun has been seized and brought back to Lewisham police station where it will be examined.”
Gang members have been known to hide weapons in public places to prevent them from being found in police raids.
In February last year police found ten guns, including a loaded shotgun and an air rifle, stashed in a bush at a sports ground in Lewisham.
In 2011 two gang members, one a boy aged 17, were jailed for possessing a sub-machine gun found hidden in bushes near to a children’s playground in the Pembury estate, Hackney.
Last summer the Met Police’s Trident Central Gangs Unit began a scheme to train residents to find guns and knives on estates plagued by gang violence to reduce shootings and stabbings.
