Bullet girl saved by UK flees new peril

An orphan flown to Britain for treatment after a bullet lodged in her head was in danger again yesterday as she fled fighting in her home town in Sierra Leone.

Tenneh Cole, now eight, is one of 60 children who fled a British-run orphanage as troops from the recently deposed junta went on the rampage. She was flown to Britain in 1996 after an appeal raised money for an operation to remove the stray AK-47 bullet lodged behind her right eye. It was a success and she returned to Sierra Leone, where she was cared for in the Hope and Homes for Children orphanage in Makeni, 130 miles from the capital, Freetown. The Nigerian-led Ecomog force ousted Lieutenant-Colonel Johnny Paul Koroma's junta last month but has not liberated Makeni. Troops supporting the military regime, which deposed elected President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah in May, have run amok in the town.