At least 12 people have been killed and several others injured in northern England after an armed man went on a shooting rampage in a popular tourist area.
David Cameron, the British prime minister, said he was “alarmed and shocked” by Wednesday’s shootings in 30 separate locations in the Lake District, which left at least 25 other people injured.
Police are believed to have found the body of the alleged shooter, who they named as Derrick Bird, a 52-year-old taxi driver from the region.
His body and a firearm were found in a wooded area following the spree which began in Whitehaven, a coastal town in the district around 560km northwest of London.
The area’s local MP said the shootings were a “shock to the system” of a close-knit community already mourning the deaths of two teenagers killed in a bus crash last week.
“This kind of thing doesn’t happen in our part of the world. We have got one of the lowest, if not the lowest, crime rates in the country,” Jamie Reed told the BBC.
A policeman told the Press Association they were working to identify the bodies and inform relatives.
Alan Hannah, a witness, said the shooter drove up alongside him at traffic lights by Whitehaven police station.
“I saw a man with a large shotgun and his windscreen was smashed. I drove through the red light to get … out of the way. I got home safely but was very shaken,” Hanna told the Whitehaven News.
Police are believed to have found the body of the alleged shooter, who they named as Derrick Bird, a 52-year-old taxi driver from the region.
His body and a firearm were found in a wooded area following the spree which began in Whitehaven, a coastal town in the district around 560km northwest of London.
The area’s local MP said the shootings were a “shock to the system” of a close-knit community already mourning the deaths of two teenagers killed in a bus crash last week.
“This kind of thing doesn’t happen in our part of the world. We have got one of the lowest, if not the lowest, crime rates in the country,” Jamie Reed told the BBC.
A policeman told the Press Association they were working to identify the bodies and inform relatives.
Alan Hannah, a witness, said the shooter drove up alongside him at traffic lights by Whitehaven police station.
“I saw a man with a large shotgun and his windscreen was smashed. I drove through the red light to get … out of the way. I got home safely but was very shaken,” Hanna told the Whitehaven News.
Previous incidents
The incident recalls previous mass shootings in Britain, which has tight controls on guns.
One of the most notorious was in 1987, when Michael Ryan, a 27-year-old man, shot 14 people dead in the town of Hungerford in Berkshire, southern England.
In 1996, 16 children aged five and six plus their teacher were shot dead in the gym of a primary school in Dunblane, central Scotland, by 43-year-old Thomas Hamilton.
The two incidents led to a significant tightening of laws on gun ownership, with registration now mandatory for shotguns, which must be kept in secure storage.
Handguns were banned in 1997, and semi-automatic and pump-action rifles are also outlawed.
Source: Agencies
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