A woman was shot in the chest with an air-gun as she stood on the balcony of her flat in a mid-Norfolk village.

A woman was shot in the chest with an air-gun as she stood on the balcony of her flat in a mid-Norfolk village.

Kate Keogh, 41, of Chapel Street, Shipdham, moved with her partner from Norwich to the peaceful country village “for a quiet life”.

But on Tuesday night she was shot in what may have been a racist attack targeting her Portuguese neighbours.

Ms Keogh said: “At 11.30pm I heard this bang outside, when I went out to investigate. A light outside the flat next door had been shot at.

“My neighbour is Portuguese and does not speak very good English so she asked me to call the police for her. The police arrived a few minutes later and confirmed it had probably been shot out with an air gun but whoever did it had obviously run off.”

Ms Keogh went back to her own flat and decided to have a cigarette on the balcony before going bed.

She said: “I didn't hear any noise at all. I just felt this impact in my chest. I thought I'd been shot.

“I just ran back inside shouting: 'I've been shot' to my partner Marie. I looked down at my chest expecting to see blood.”

Two shots were fired at her, one hitting a nearby window and the other left a bruise on her chest.

“It was right on my heart. I don't know whether they were a really good shot or it was just luck,” she laughed, nervously.

The Portuguese woman next door was worried for her family, Ms Keogh added.

“I think she thinks that it is her family they are targeting. She has a young daughter, about six or seven, and the light that was shot out was just above her bedroom window.

“I certainly have no enemies.”

According to Breckland Council spokes-woman Mandy Montagu, the Portuguese family living next door to Ms Keogh and her partner have experienced some racial tension.

Anyone with information about the incident should contact PC Philipa Maskell at Dereham Police Station on 0845 456 4567.