Police were today hunting a gang who shot a Londonderry man and his dog and abducted his girlfriend.

The man was today recovering in hospital after being shot in the neck by masked men near a Donegal border village.

The couple and their pet were sitting in their car after going for a drive in an area they only recently moved into.

In a quiet, rural townland three miles from the village of St Johnston, the silence was shattered when a blue van carrying a masked gang pulled in front of them and opened fire.

A hail of bullets shattered the windscreen, wounding the man, whose girlfriend ran from the car as the bullets were flying.

As well as striking the man — who is believed to be a taxi driver in Derry — a bullet passed right through the dog.

It is understood the 26-year-old was sitting in a silver Audi car with his girlfriend and dog outside their home in the Transalla area of St Johnston when the masked gang pulled up in a van and blasted the car at around 9.30pm.

A spokeswoman for Letterkenny General Hospital said the man, was “in a stable condition on arrival and remained in a stable condition” earlier today.

The gang of four opened fire on the car and despite being hit in the neck, the wounded man managed to drive off and raise the alarm at a neighbour’s house a few miles away before being taken to hospital.

A second bullet struck the man’s St Bernard pup, which was later treated by a vet from Letterkenny.

Meanwhile his girlfriend was abducted by the gang and later released several miles from the scene of the shooting.

It is understood the couple, who both come from Derry, had only recently moved into a row of new homes built in the Transalla area.

Local vet, Gerard Roarty, who lives in Derry and runs the animal hospital in Letterkenny, said today that he received a call around 10pm to go to the house that the wounded man went to for help.

When he arrived, he saw the silver Audi car sitting in the drive.

Mr Roarty said the car windscreen was full of bullet holes and that there was a lot of blood inside it.

He added that the pup was still in the car, and that he took it to his animal hospital, where he and a team of vets operated on it throughout the night.

The shot dog survived, and was today recovering, still in Mr Roarty’s care.

“We were called to retrieve a pup at Manorcunningham that was very upset.

“The first thing I noticed was bullet holes in the windscreen. The pup was very upset and losing a lot of blood. There was an entry and an exit wound and it was obvious it had been shot.

“We operated throughout the night and it lost a bit of bowel. It is critical but stable today and we are hopeful.”

Gardai meanwhile today appealed for anyone with information to contact them.

The scene of the shooting was still sealed off this morning as technical experts carried out an examination.