Police are asking for witnesses after a shot was fired through the window of a great, great grandmother while she was inside.

The family of 90-year-old Mrs Tove Bellamy believe a .22 air rifle was used in the after-dark attack. It was fired at her lounge window at head height while she was inside with the lights on, shattering the outside pane of the double glazing in her lounge window at Fore Street, Barton, Torquay.

One of her six children, Alan Bellamy said: "We want the police to find out who did it. Next time somebody could get hurt.

"At head height there was a hole in the outside - it's like someone has shot at them. The blinds are white and you can see if people are moving around inside when the lights are on.

"My mum was in the lounge. My brother Geoffrey was here with her. There was a big crash.

"It scared her to death but they didn't know what it was until the next morning when mum opened the blind in the lounge and saw the hole in the outside of the double glazing unit.

The rifle shot pictured from inside the lounge

"I used to have air rifles when I was younger and I can tell by the size of the impact that it was done with a .22 air rifle.

"My brother reported it to the police next day and he followed it up a week later and was told the community beat bobby would be dealing with it.

"My mum is very alert. She is upset because she was born in Denmark and she is very law-abiding. She cannot understand why anybody would do something like this."

Mrs Bellamy has 14 grandchildren, 27 great-grandchildren and one great, great-grandchild.

Tove Bellamy

A police spokesman said: "Police are investigating an incident of criminal damage at an elderly woman's home in Fore Street, Barton, Torquay.

"A small hole was caused to a window. The reporting person believed the damage may have been a pellet or bullet hole.

"Police are appealing for information and asking anyone who saw or heard anything suspicious to contact them via 101@dc.police.uk or by phone on 101, quoting crime reference CR/086154/19."