A teenager accused of shooting a 15-year-old schoolboy in the face in Kesgrave was arrested by armed police after he was seen sitting in a car in an Ipswich street with his head in his hands, a court has heard.

The boy had locked himself in the car and was dragged out after armed officers used their guns to smash windows.

In a statement read to Ipswich Crown Court, an officer described seeing the boy sitting in the driver's seat of a parked car in Westwood Avenue with his head in his hands following the shooting on September 7 last year.

Earlier, the court heard that the victim of the shooting had suffered potentially life-threatening injuries.

Consultant forensic pathologist Dr Nat Cary told the jury: “You see many cases of this sort of wounding which are fatal.

“His injuries were very life-threatening indeed and he only survived because of immediate high quality care and how he was dealt with afterwards.”

Dr Cary described the boy’s injuries - which included a shattered lower jaw and an injury to the carotid artery, which takes blood to the head and brain - as “absolutely devastating”.

He said they had resulted in partial paralysis, disfigurement and an impact on the boy’s daily life.

He said damage to the carotid artery was “very dangerous” and had resulted in the boy suffering a stroke.

The court has heard that the muzzle of a double barrelled shotgun which caused the injury to the right side of boy’s face was less than 5ft away from him when he was blasted him in the face.

Before the court is a16-year-old boy, who cannot be named because of his age, who has denied attempted murder, possession of a shotgun with intent to endanger life, wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and possessing a shotgun with intent to cause fear of violence against a man who witnessed the incident.

It has been alleged that the victim was deliberately shot as he was walking to Kesgrave High School on the first day of a new term where he was a pupil.

The prosecution has claimed the defendant set out to kill the boy after planning the attack for a year.

A friend later told police that the teenager had been planning the attack for a year but he had wrongly assumed he was joking.

The court has heard that on September 7 last year the defendant took his grandfather’s double barrelled shotgun and drove to Friends Walk in Grange Farm, Kesgrave in his father’s car, where he allegedly lay in wait for more than an hour before shooting the victim.

The trial continues.