4 Aug 2011

Man killed and policeman injured in north London shooting

A man has been killed and a police officer has been injured in a shooting incident in north London, Scotland Yard has confirmed.

Air ambulance crew arriving at the scene @schmeelitche/twitpic

A Scotland Yard spokesman said “one male was pronounced dead at the scene and one officer was taken to hospital.”

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which has been called in to investigate the incident, said that it understands the dead male had been shot by the police and that the officer had been shot and wounded.

An IPCC spokesman said “we do not know the order the shots were fired. We understand the officer was shot first before the male was shot.”

Air ambulance crew arriving at the scene @schmeelitche/twitpic

The incident, which happened in the Ferry Lane area of Tottenham Hale at 6.15pm on Thursday, was referred to the IPCC by the Metropolitan Police professional standards department.

A waitress at the Ferry Boat Inn, who did not wish to be named, said: “One man came in and he said that he saw police trying to pull some clothes off a man who was bleeding.”

Writing on the social networking site Twitter, eyewitnesses reported seeing large numbers of police cars, a helicopter and two ambulances in the area. Local roads were closed with police enforcing traffic diversions.

Twitter user @schmeelitche also posted pictures of an air ambulance crew arriving at the scene.