A DUCK has died at Riverside Park after being targeted by four teenagers who fired objects at it with a catapult.

Passers-by were left in disbelief at what they saw. Kelly Curtis, 52, who witnessed the incident, said: “We were distraught, I don’t think I’ll ever go to Riverside Park again.”

She told the Daily Echo: “Me and a friend were walking by the river on our way from Woodmill Café to The White Swan at the opposite end of the park.

“I’m a massive animal lover and have been all my life, it would never cross my mind to hurt anything.

“But as we were walking through the park, we could see a teenager running around with what I thought was a bag in his hand, or maybe a piece of wood – we couldn’t quite tell.

Daily Echo:

“As we got closer, we were horrified as we could see this boy had his arm in the air and he was holding this poor duck by its wing, we couldn’t believe it.

"There were four children running around without their parents – they must be secondary school age – and we were in shock, so we just screamed at them and swore a few times because we were so angry, and they dropped the duck to the ground and ran away.

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“A couple of guys who had also seen it tried to run after them but didn’t catch them. We just couldn’t believe what we’d seen.

"Speaking to someone later on it turns out that they were catapulting the duck with something and then jumped into the river to drag it out.”

Kelly added: “This poor animal was just suffering, and you could see it had been injured to the point that the best thing to do was put it out of its misery as quickly as possible.

“There were a few of us gathered at this point and a man put it to sleep. We were distraught, we couldn’t even speak.

"Where does it end? If these boys who were only teenagers are doing such a thing at that age what will they be like when they’re older?

“I couldn’t sleep that night; it completely affected my mood.”

In a statement regarding the incident that took place on Monday lunchtime, Southampton City Council told the Echo: “We are sad to learn that a duck was attacked in one of our parks.

“Whilst this incident is a police matter, we certainly do not condone any violence against animals.

"We will continue to encourage residents and visitors to respect our parks and the wildlife we are fortunate to have living in them.”