A teenager has told of the moment she was shot in the face with a crossbow at her college gates.

Beauty student Evie White, 17, was leaving the Canterbury College campus when a metal bolt pierced her mouth and lodged in her cheek.

The shot had been fired by a mystery marksman, leaving Evie screaming for help as her mouth filled with blood.

Speaking exclusively to KentOnline after her ordeal on Friday, the former Abbey School pupil recalled the moment she was hit.

"All we saw was Evie drop her things on the floor and her mouth just filled with blood. She just kept saying ‘can someone please help me, please help me’" - Georgia Brazil

“My friends were staring at me in disbelief,” she said.

“They didn’t say a word, they were just staring. Then I touched my face and felt the blood and then thought ‘What the hell is that in my cheek?’ and pulled the dart out and chucked it straight on the floor.

“There was a lot of blood coming from my lip, but I think I must’ve been in shock because I wasn’t really feeling the pain, but my friends were hysterically crying.”

One of them was close pal Georgia Brazil, who is studying on the same hair and beauty course.

Georgia, 17, recalled: “As we were walking out of the campus this thing just hit her in the face. All we saw was Evie drop her things on the floor and her mouth just filled with blood.

“She just kept saying ‘Can someone please help me, please help me’.

“I had a look around at where the dart seemed to have been fired but couldn’t see anyone – I’ve got no idea where it came from.

“It was really, really scary.”

First-aiders and college security guards ran to Evie and called paramedics and police.

Evie’s dad John says he arrived at the college to see her covered in blood after receiving a call from a tutor.

He said: “I really panicked at first but thought it might have been the girls in her class playing about with a dart – definitely nothing this serious. When we arrived, Evie was in the ambulance and had been wrapped in bandages because there was a lot of blood – it was all over her clothes.

“I was angry at first, but I just feel lucky that she wasn’t more seriously hurt.”

Evie was taken to Ashford’s William Harvey Hospital for treatment and should escape with minor scarring.

Police say two people have since given an account of what happened, with speculation that it could have been a freak accident.

Spokesman Keith Fairbank confirmed: “Two people have since come forward and been spoken to by officers in relation to the incident.

“No arrests have been made and officers are considering what, if any, further action should be taken.”

Evie says that firing a crossbow in public, even without intent to injure someone, should be a criminal offence.

She said: “I think it has probably scared me more than it’s hurt me.”

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