Police are hunting a gunman dressed as a Ninja Turtle after shots were fired through the letter box of a house.

No-one was inside the home on Averill Street in Newton Heath when the drama happened.

Officers were called to the address and found scorch marks and pellets consistent with a shotgun being fired through the letter box of the house.

Although it is occupied, no-one was inside the house at the time of the shooting on Thursday night.

A few minutes earlier, a witness spotted a man with a gun dressed from head-to-toe as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle on nearby Edgeware Road and dialled 999.

Ninja Turtles are fictional cartoon characters named after Renaissance artists who fight evil from their home in the sewers beneath New York city.

When police arrived at the scene they found a motorbike which had been stolen in Salford abandoned in a ginnel.

Detectives believe the two incidents are linked and suspect it is part of a feud between two local families who are known to the police.

They are treating the shooting as a ‘warning shot’ rather an attempt to hurt or kill someone.

A source said: “This Ninja was fighting for evil rather than against it. We need to catch him before someone gets seriously hurt.”

Anyone with information is asked to call police on 101 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555111.