By Charlotte Greenfield and Paulina Duran
WELLINGTON/SYDNEY, March 1 (Reuters) - New Zealand'sintelligence agency on Thursday confirmed for the first timethat a teenager tried to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II during avisit to the southern city of Dunedin in 1981, sparking a policeinquiry into how the incident was handled.
Documents released by the New Zealand Security IntelligenceService (SIS) show the then 17-year-old Christopher Lewis shotat the Queen as she got out of her vehicle on the way to ascience fair on Oct. 14 during her eight-day tour of theCommonwealth nation.
"Lewis did indeed originally intend to assassinate theQueen, however did not have a suitable vantage point from whichto fire, nor a sufficiently high-powered rifle for the rangefrom the target," said a 1997 SIS memo, that was declassified inFebruary and sent to Reuters on Thursday.
The documents were declassified in response to a request byFairfax Media.
Lewis, who intelligence documents described as a "severelydisturbed" youth, was not charged with attempted murder ortreason, adding to claims the incident was downplayed to preventembarrassment to a country hosting a royal visit.
He was instead charged with unlawful possession anddischarge of a firearm.
Members of the crowd in Dunedin and reporters heard theshot, but were initially told by police that the noise was froma falling sign or a car backfiring.
"Current police investigations into the shots have beenconducted discreetly and most media representatives probablyhave the impression that the noise was caused by a firework ofsome description," said a November 1981 memo from SIS, alsoreleased on Thursday.
According to intelligence documents, police kept a close eyeon Lewis during a 1986 visit by the Queen to New Zealand,fearing that he was still a risk.
The intelligence agency revelations have prompted a policeinquiry into the matter, authorities said on Thursday.
A New Zealand police spokeswoman said in a statement toReuters that the police commissioner had ordered the case filebe examined.
More than a decade after the incident, Lewis was chargedwith the brutal murder of an Auckland mother and the abductionof her baby daughter, who was later dropped at a nearby church.
According to multiple news reports at the time, Lewiselectrocuted himself while in prison in 1997 awaiting the murdertrial. He denied the murder charge in a suicide note.
New Zealand has been independent of British rule since 1947,but retains the Queen as its constitutional monarch and head ofstate. She has visited the country as monarch 10 times, mostrecently in 2002.