Two held over boy's shooting

Merseyside Police said the boy was playing football with two friends near the Fir Tree pub in Croxteth, Liverpool, when he was shot by a teenager who rode past on a BMX bicycle with his face covered by a hood.

One of three bullets fired hit the boy in the neck. Paramedics had still been working on the victim when he arrived at Liverpool's Alder Hey Hospital.

Ambulance chiefs said the victim was taken to hospital with serious gunshot wounds.

He was initially said to be in a critical condition but was later confirmed dead.

A police spokesman said: "The Merseyside Police can confirm that a boy has been fatally shot near to the Fir Tree public house in Croxteth.

"Police were called to the scene shortly after 7.30pm. An investigation is under way."

No-one has yet been arrested in connection with the shooting.

North West Ambulance Service said earlier that it had responded to a call to the Fir Tree's car park in Fir Tree Drive, Croxteth.

A spokesman said: "We treated an 11-year-old with serious gunshot wounds. We removed the child to Alder Hey Hospital in a critical condition."

Is it less safe on our streets?

Billy Cox, Kiyan Prince, and now 11-year-old Rhys Jones. The victims of the crimes are getting younger - as are the perpetrators.

With 17 teenagers gunned down in London alone this year, you could be forgiven for thinking it's far less safe on our streets. But would you be justified?

The figures for 2007 have yet to be collated, but comparing 2005/6 with 2001/2, deaths from gun crime have actually gone down in England and Wales, to 50 from 97.

In Scotland it has gone up comparatively, by three incidents to eight, but the numbers have remained within single figures.

So is it right to say that we feel less safe? The statistics definitely bear that out. A home office study found that anxiety over violent crime in went up by 28 per cent last year in London and by 17 per cent in England and Wales as a whole.

The "Croxteth crew" is the gang thought to have been involved in yesterday's murder of Rhys Jones. This is the kind of teenage involvement that is fuelling anxiety because, although gun crime in general seems to be going down, the number of teenage victims is going up.

Additional reporting: ITN and PA

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