Gun crime grips Britain

Britain is in the grip of gun crime again after a fourth street shooting hit the headlines in less than a week.

Three men were shot in Liverpool centre during the early hours of Sunday at a time when the city's nightclubs were on high alert because of growing violence.

It is the latest in a series of gun attacks that left two people dead and seven injured.

The attacks have sparked claims that gun crime is now out of control in Britain and led to calls for urgent action.

In the latest attack, the three victims had been drinking with a group of friends when two of them were attacked in the Slater Street area around 1.30am.

An 18-year-old was shot in the hand and thigh and a 20-year-old in the buttocks from a small calibre weapon, Merseyside Police said.

Twenty minutes later and about 100 yards away, a 24-year-old man from the group was shot in the leg.

All three were taken to the Royal Liverpool University Hospital.

The incident came after police had launched a large-scale operation following a car bomb blast outside a nightclub two weeks ago and a nail bomb attack on a pub in Walton last week.

Police are not linking the shooting to those incidents, which are believed to have been associated with a gangland feud.

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