Gunman' was a boy playing

Scottish police officers burst into the house of a suspected gunman yesterday after a report from a frightened member of the public.

But instead of finding a dangerous gunman, the police discovered a 12- year old boy, whose Hallowe'en outfit had been mistaken for something more sinister.

The boy, who was taken from his house in Aberdeen by officers, is understood to have leapt out of a ground-floor window in front of the passer-by, who was so alarmed that he contacted the police.

The boy's mother said yesterday that her son had made the "gun" out of a broomstick and an old gun butt he had found near his home. "He was just play acting. I don't think he ever intended to make out that he had a gun," she said.