The victim was playing with his friends in the back garden when he was shot with a metal pellet.
An 11-year-old boy was shot in the head as he climbed over a garden fence to retrieve a football.
The victim was playing with his friends in the back garden of a house in Leyland, Lancashire on Monday evening when the ball went over a fence.
As the boy climbed the fence to look over he was hit in the head by a metal pellet.
Lancashire Police believe it was fired from an air weapon.
He suffered a fractured skull and was taken to Alder Hey hospital for surgery.
Det Con Paul Brown, of South CID, said: ‘This incident has left a young boy with some really significant injuries, and it is fortunate he was not more seriously hurt or even killed.
‘We are carrying out a number of enquiries to try and identify the person or persons responsible and I would appeal to anyone who saw what happened, has any dashcam or Ring doorbell footage, or who has any information which could assist our investigation to get in touch.
‘I’m sure someone in the local community knows who is responsible for what’s happened to this young boy and I would urge them to come and speak to us.’
In January a nine-year-old boy was crushed to death after he crawled under a school bus to retrieve his football.
The bus was stopped on Island Bay Drive in Orlando when the boy got off, said the Florida Highway Patrol.
As the driver left the Waterford East Apartments complex at the site, the boy ran back toward the bus and crawled under it as it moved, according to the report obtained by FOX 35.
The driver did not know the boy was underneath and ran him over. The boy was the only student who was on the bus.
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