A GROUP of teenagers dubbed "the four musketeers" have apparently claimed responsibility for shooting at the letterbox of a controversial newspaper columnist.

Mail on Sunday columnist Liz Jones, 51, said she was "traumatised and frightened" after the attack on her home near Dulverton, West Somerset, last month, as exclusively revealed by the Western Morning News.

Miss Jones had referred to her fellow villagers as "toothless" farmers, described shop staff as having "learning difficulties" and criticised local pub food as being stuck in the 1970s.

But a national newspaper yesterday revealed how a group of teenagers known as "the four musketeers" were behind the attack on Miss Jones's home. The teenagers, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Sunday Times: "We didn't mean it as a personal assault."

One group member, aged 19, said: "I wouldn't say it was a malicious attack, like throwing a brick through a window. This was just an old aluminium letterbox.

"We thought it would be funny to take a shot and see if she would write about it. She had written something about toothless farmers and Somerset youths having nothing to do and they are on drugs.

"A mate rang me up and said, 'Have you read this and do you want to do something about it?' We drove past her house at about 10 or 11 at night and said, 'Wooah, what about Liz Jones?' I was going to fire the gun, then my mate said he would do it. We were arguing about it. In the end, he did it because it was his gun.

"He fired at an angle because we were worried the rebound might hit our truck."

Another member of the group said they had no regrets about the incident. The teenager added: "If someone asked me to take it back, I wouldn't."

Miss Jones was away at the time, but a source told the WMN the writer was "worried about her own safety, as well as the person in her home and her animals".

Avon and Somerset Police were unavailable for comment last night.