A man standing on the side of the road has been shot in the face with an air pistol.
Police say the man and friends were on their way home from the Rhythm and Vines Festival in Gisborne when they stopped half-way through the Waioeka Gorge as one of the passengers was feeling unwell.
The driver got out of the vehicle and was standing beside it as a line of cars drove past.
Police say a man in the passenger seat of a dark-coloured SUV pointed an air pistol at the driver and his car and shot twice.
The pellet hit the 20-year-old man and became lodged just beneath his eye. He is in a stable stable condition and will undergo surgery.
The man who shot the air pistol is described as Caucasian, with light or ginger hair who was heard to laugh as he drove off.
