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MACHINE GUN KILLINGS


Police investigating the shooting of four teenagers at a party in Birmingham say more than 30 shots were fired and a sub-machine gun was used.


Detectives told a news conference that the girls, two of whom died, were not members of a gang and described their deaths as a "senseless loss of life".

Detective Superintendent Dave Mirfield released a photograph of all four girls - who are related - taken hours before the shooting, which he said served as a "poignant reminder" of the tragedy.

He appealed for help from those who attended or saw what happened at the party at a hairdressing salon in Birmingham on Thursday morning.

Reward

Charlene Ellis, 18, was killed and her twin sister Sophie injured in the shooting in Aston. Sophie is now under armed guard in hospital and is in a stable condition.

Latisha Shakespear, 17, also died. Cheryl Shaw, also 17, was injured in the hand. She has now left hospital.

They had left the party for some fresh air when they were shot.

£10,000 in rewards is being offered by the Birmingham Evening Mail and the Victims of Crime group to catch the killers.

'Killers must be found'

The newspaper's editor, Roger Borrell, said: "As a community newspaper, we grieve with those who are caught up in this tragedy. Their killers must be found".


Relatives who were gathered at the twins' home said the girls' mother was too upset to talk about the tragedy.

Neighbour Huler Henry, 40, said of the girls: "I had seen them both on the evening of the party they were going to. They were getting ready to go out to enjoy themselves.

Devastated

"They were a very happy pair of teenagers. They were inseparable, always going round together and joking with each other.

"My husband went round to see their mother yesterday and said she was devastated."

Police said Sophie and Cheryl are both in a stable condition in hospital.

Police described the shootings as "exceptional in their brutality" and "unprecedented".

Search

A wide area around the scene was sealed off by police as the area is searched for clues to what happened on the night.

Ballistics experts are examining bullet casings recovered from the scene and a car riddled with bullet holes abandoned around 50m from the salon.

Extra armed officers have been deployed on the streets of Birmingham in response to the killings.

The Government is also expected to launch tough new laws to deal with those who carry and use guns.

Quoted:
 
[url]http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-12214801,00.html[/url]

...to deal with those who carry and use guns.

Quoted:
You have to remember that "gun culture" to the Brits means "criminal culture".  They don't necessarily mean that all gun owners are criminals; it simply is that they do not have a mental allowance for the idea that guns are okay for the average person to own.

Quoted:
The Government is also expected to launch tough new laws to deal with [red]those who carry and use guns[/red].