Brixton guard shot in neck

A guard hired to protect a shop from a gang terrorising the neighbourhood was shot in the neck and seriously wounded after robbers raided the store.

The guard, who was hired after a spate of hold-ups at the Cornners off-licence in New Park Road, Brixton, walked in as two armed men were robbing the shop. He was shot as he tried to intervene.

The shooting last night is the latest in a crimewave which has left local people afraid to leave their homes after dark. The shot man has not been named by police, but local people knew him as Duane, a Jamaican in his early 20s.

Residents said one particular gang of youths had been terrorising the area for the last few months. The injured man is said to be in a "stable" condition at hospital.

?A shopworker was seriously hurt after being pistol-whipped when he tackled two armed raiders during a robbery at the Sunshine Food and Wines store in Shepherd's Bush. The man needed stitches to a head wound.