Published: Thursday, 13th December, 2007 09:30
Driver in airgun A1 ambush
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A TRANENT father has been left “shaken” after a group of teenagers armed with an airgun ambushed his van close to the A1 on Monday afternoon.
A gang of five teenagers – standing in the middle of the road at the Bankton flyover, near Tranent – forced the driver, Andrew Gillies, to slow to a crawl before one pulled out an airgun, pointed it at his head, and fired.
On approaching the youths, the 28-year-old IT engineer had blasted his horn and slowed to avoid hitting them.
“When I saw them standing in the road I didn’t really think anything would happen. Maybe just a mouthful of abuse for sounding my horn at them,” said Mr Gillies.
“But before I came to a standstill, one of them pulled out an air pistol and in one swift motion pointed it at me and fired.
It was so quick. He pulled, pointed and fired in one movement,” he added.
After the shot cracked his front windscreen, the former soldier, from south Tranent, said “instinct took over” and he mounted the pavement to avoid running over his assailants with the van.
Mr Gillies, who is married and a father to two small children, was uninjured in the attack, which took place at 4.30pm.
He said: “What if I was in my car and had my kids with me? That is the most frightening thing.”
Immediately after the incident, Mr Gillies stopped at nearby Tranent Police Station to find it was vacant and so telephoned police directly.
By the time police arrived, the youths had escaped.
Police are searching for five youths in their early to late teens and described as being between 5ft 9-10ins tall. All were wearing dark clothing with hooded tops.
Anyone with any information should contact police on 0131 311 3131.
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