Youths shoot at Santa with BB gun during festive fundraising street tour in Sandwell, West Midlands

Two youths opened fire on Santa with a ball-bearing gun as he rode his sleigh to help raise money for charity. An ex-police officer and fundraiser has spoken of his shock after the incident, which occurred during the Sandwell Lions Club Santa's Sleigh event on Sunday evening, when Father Christmas travels around the borough.

David Glover, a member of the West Midlands 4x4 response, an emergency services charity support group, was driving Santa along in Warley Woods when he says he heard what sounded like loud "pops" before seeing a youth on a moped with a brightly coloured gun. Describing the incident, Mr Glover said: "Basically Santa gets on his sleigh and we have several bucket carriers who carry collection buckets next to the sleigh collecting donations.

"As it starts to get dark we pull up to make a stop and these two youths, both on a black moped come screaming up to Santa with their phones out. There is a big crowd, they just rode straight through them and nearly knocked over one of our collectors."

After the youths left, the sleigh continued however it was only a short time before they were back and armed with a ball-bearing pistol. David an ex-police officer with West Midlands Police, continued: "I told the lead organiser to put all of the money into one bucket and put it in the lead Land Rover, after that we carried on.

"We carried on up Lenwade Road, we went down a road near there and they came racing down there again, all I hear is 'pop, pop, pop', when I look over I see the one on the back with an orange gun. We called 999 straight away, and Sandwell officers came straight down and stuck with us the rest of the way."

While no one was injured, David says the incident has left many shaken, including the young people at the event. David continued: "It's a shame, this is a charity thing, Sandwell Lions are just trying to do good work and this happens. No one was really hurt during it. I have a couple of small dinks on my car but there wasn't any damage to Santa.

"The worrying thing is that there were young people there too, it would have obviously shaken them, the emotional damage it may have had on these young people is terrible."

Sandwell Police attended the incident, where they looked for the youths before accompanying the sleigh on the rest of its journey. The former police officer said: "It's just shocking that these kids have the gall to even shoot at Santa. They are definitely going on the naughty list this year."

Sandwell Police confirmed the incident saying: "We received a report that volunteers were being harassed while carrying out a charity collection in Grove Road, Oldbury at around 7pm on Sunday. No one was injured and no money was taken but shots fired from a BB pellet gun caused damage to the vehicle the volunteer group’s Santa was travelling in."

Police have launched an investigation into the attack, asking anyone with information to get in contact with them by calling 101 or via Live Chat quoting crime reference 20/1061637/23.