A motorist has spoken of his shock after a mindless thug blasted him in the face with a paintball gun as he drove along a busy road.

Geoff Denyer, 39, was struck by the high velocity paint cartridge after being singled out by the unknown gunman.

Police have slammed the culprit, saying he could have caused a serious accident.

Software engineer Geoff, who lives with his wife Janette and their two daughters in Anderton Grove, Euxton, was stunned by the incident, but relieved to have come out unscathed after narrowly avoiding crashing his car.

He was travelling along Wigan Road, Euxton, close to the Insty club on Monday, August 8, when the attack took place.

He said: "It was a hot evening so I had the window down.

"As I slowed down to the traffic lights, I suddenly heard a 'thwack', and felt a sting to my lip and a 'splat' to my left.

"I put my hand to my lip and when I took it away, it was covered in blue paint."

Geoff spun the car around, parked near where he thought it had come from, and went to investigate, but there was no one there.

"I can't stress how dangerous this was," he said. " Whoever fired it was clearly aiming for my head. Another two inches and they would have hit my eye."

PC Lydia Hackett, community beat police officer for Euxton, said: "The aggrieved was hit in the face with a paintball whilst he was driving along Wigan Road, this could potentially have caused a major road accident as well as a serious injury if he had been hit in the eye.

"Whoever has fired the paintball gun has acted in a totally irresponsible way not realising the possible consequences of their actions."

Geoff's car was not damaged and he was able to sponge the paint off, but he is concerned that other drivers are aware that this kinds of danger exists.

"If the road had been busy, I dread to think what the consequence would have been," he said.

The incident comes less than a month after a similar one in Darwen where a man was struck on the forehead by a paintball while driving much faster. He also escaped without injury. In that case the offender ran off and a paintball gun was recovered.

The Firearms Act places paintball guns in the category of air weapons, and as such no licence is need to possess one in the majority of cases.