An eight-year-old girl, who was mysteriously shot with an arrow as she played on a field trip in Berkeley, returned to school today after recovering from the freak incident.

Nadine Hairston-Millington, of Marinwood, was shot in the thigh with a 20-inch arrow on an outing on Tuesday with her third grade class at Mary E. Silveira School.

She was playing on a whale statue at the Lawrence Hall of Science with up to 40 other children when the arrow came from nowhere piercing her thigh.

 

All-better: Nadine Hairston-Millington, 8, is back in school and on the mend after being struck by an arrow while on a school field trip at the University of California at Berkeley

 

Injuries: The 20-inch arrow can be seen still lodged in Nadine’s leg ahead of surgery to remove it

 

Lodged: Nadine was taken to hospital with the arrow still in her leg, but it was removed and she is doing well

The police said they had no suspects in connection to the crime today as the little girl returned to school.

‘She’s back and she’s doing great.’ Principal Will Anderson told the Marin Independent today.

Nadine was supported with numerous posters and cards from her schoolmates after the incident.

She told the local paper she suddenly felt a stinging sensation before she saw the 20-inch arrow sticking out of her leg.

‘It hurt a lot so I started crying a little,’ she said.

She sang Taylor Swift sings in the ambulance to try and keep her mind off it.

‘She was sliding down the whale and she felt a shock in her left leg so jumped off and tried to run, but she couldn’t run,’ her mother, Alicia Hairston, told ABC7.

Luckily the arrow missed all major arteries and bone in her leg and was successfully removed.

She returned home from hospital yesterday.

The incident has made her a celebrity in her hometown and across the country after the arrow attack was reported by numerous news outlets including Mail Online.

‘Trooper’: Nadine Hairston smiles in hospital with a friend after she was shot with an arrow on Tuesday

 

Relief: Her mother, Alicia Hairston, has offered a $1,000 reward for information tracking down the suspect

Asked today what she thought of the media attention, she said: ‘I liked it’.

Her mother Alicia has offered a $1,000 reward for any information tracking down the culprit.

Police said the arrow had a hobbyist tip but they could garner little other information about it.

They handed out fliers with a picture of the arrow to appeal to the shooter to come forward, and to ask the public for any further information.

‘It’s certainly possible that it might just be an accident – a careless accident at the very least – but it also could be considered a violent felony,’ said Sgt. Andrew Tucker from the UC Berkeley Police.

Police Capt. Steve Roderick said the eight-year-old girl was a ‘trooper.’

Geoff Vassallo, who was chaperoning the group of 60 third graders, expressed his shock at the bizarre incident.

‘[It was] some idiot not thinking what they’re doing or someone being malicious, who knows,’ he told ABC7. ‘You think why would someone do that? Why would they chance it?’

Vassallo, who is himself an archer, estimated that the arrow was the kind used by an adult of average height.

Officers scoured an area north of the science center encompassing a residential neighborhood, hiking trails and a parking lot in search of the shooter or any possible clues.

UC spokeswoman Janet Gilmore told MercuryNews.com police did find a couple of arrows during their search, but they did not match the crossbow type that injured the girl.
 

Shock: She was hit while on this life-sized replica of a fin whale outside the Lawrence Hall of Science

 

Scene: Police are now investigating how the girl was struck outside the UC Berkeley museum, pictured