IN a dramatic move, Bexleyheath police have searched a Thamesmead lake for clues in the Tommy Morris shooting.

Tommy, now aged 16, was shot and nearly killed with an air rifle as he rode home on his trial bike for tea, last summer. The pellet punctured his lung, tore through his gall bladder and lies embedded in his liver, a millimetre away from his renal artery.

An appeal through News Shopper and on BBC television's Crimewatch, for information about the shooting, provoked more than 90 calls. As a result of the information received, police went to Southmere lake, in Thamesmead, last Friday morning.

Divers from the Met's marine support unit, based at Wapping, went into the lake, searching for a stolen Saab car which police believe may be connected with the shooting.

The car was located, winched out of the water, and thoroughly searched. Then, still covered in mud and pond weed, it was towed away from the site.

If you have information about the shooting of Tommy Morris in Belvedere Road, at about 5.30pm, on July 24, last year, call Detective Sergeant Pat Carey at Bexleyheath CID on 020 8284 9246.