Britain protests to Spain after jet-skier shot at off Gibraltar During the journey in question, I left Western Beach, always staying within the confines of British Waters, and hugging the coast ... I was fired upon at least four times by a Civil Guard vessel within British Gibraltar Territorial Waters for no reason whatsoever. When he realised three men on the Spanish police boat, including one who was carrying a metre-long black weapon aimed towards the jet ski, were firing, he added: "I was in fear for our safety and wanted to get back onto the beach away from the threat. Suddenly, shots were fired, and I had to perform evasive manoeuvres in order to avoid being an easy target for the person carrying the weapon, and also to avoid being run down by the substantially larger vessel. I am very disappointed and distraught this has happened to me. I dread the day someone is injured out at sea in our waters because of the Civil Guard. "Not ten minutes earlier I had a ten-year-old girl on my jet ski - can you imagine the trauma she would have suffered if she had been on at the time?" he said. Local reports said an officer on the Rio Cedena rapid response vessel had fired rubber bullets at the jet ski. A spokesman from the Civil Guard denied that any shots had been fired at a jet ski in a statement to Spain's El Mundo newspaper but claimed that a patrol boat had pursued a jet ski suspected of bringing in smuggled cigarettes. Mr Lidington confirmed that he had instructed the British charge d'affaires in Madrid to lodge a formal complaint to the Spanish foreign ministry and to demand a full explanation. It is the latest in a series of incidents in the disputed territorial waters around The Rock to lead to diplomatic warnings. In November, Spain's ambassador to London was summoned to hear protests over "serious incursions" by Spanish naval vessels into Gibraltar's waters. The British government subsequently revealed Spanish state vessels illegally entered the disputed waters around Gibraltar 178 times between November 2011 and the end of October 2012. Spain ceded Gibraltar to Britain under the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht but stills claims sovereignty over the tiny peninsular at its southwestern tip and has never recognised the right to territorial waters.