Children are using home made projectile throwers to launch rocks at each other, as well as birds and animals.

Known as wrist rockers, they are made by taping the finger from a rubber glove to a plastic tube. A rock or marble is then put inside and launched when the finger is pulled back.

Senior Community Centre worker Harold Minors said he had confiscated two just recently from children using The Centre, on Angle Street where he works.

He said: "It would be easy to make a mistake and take someone's eye out.'' Mr. Minors said children found the plastic pipes on building sites and duct taped them to fingers hacked from rubber gloves.

One Dellwood pupil said he had been hit in the back of the neck by a rock fired from a wrist rocker: "I got hurt -- it was very painful. An older boy fired it.'' He said he had been told they were illegal but he said children as young as five were using them.

"They just take them away then people make new ones. They use it to fire rocks at people or kiskadees.'' However Dellwood Middle School head teacher Carol Bassett said she had not seen the weapons.

She said: "I would have confiscated them. If anyone was using them they might have to be punished. We try to maintain a healthy and safe environment.'' A Police spokesman said yesterday that the instruments were not classified as an offensive weapon.

"If they are being used to injure people, then they can be classified as an offensive weapon, somewhere along the lines as a homemade slingshot,'' added the spokesman.

He urged parents to be on the watch for the devices and confiscate and destroy them if found.

Dangerous game: This confiscated home made missile launcher can hurl rocks over a distance of 20 yards. Police are asking parents to be on the watch for the devices, which are made from rubber dishwashing gloves and pieces of discarded plastic tubing.