Gunman kills 12 people in Cumbrian shooting rampage
A GUNMAN shot and killed at least 12 people in Cumbria yesterday after a shooting spree in a number of small towns in the northwest region.
The shootings, believed to be the worst the UK has seen in more than a decade, have also left 25 people injured, including three children who are critically injured.
Taxi driver Derrick Bird, who was responsible for the shootings, was found dead by police in wooded area in Boot in the Lake District. He is believed to have taken his own life.
News of the rampage shocked the whole country yesterday as police said the investigation into the massacre was still in its early stages.
Assistant chief constable of Cumbria police Stuart Hyde said the authorities had not yet been able to piece together the motivation behind the attack, or whether it was simply the random act of a madman.
The Queen said that she was “deeply shocked” by the news and shared the “grief and horror of the whole country”.
Shootings started in Whitehaven where Bird worked, and shot a fellow taxi driver, before moving on to more than 30 locations around the Lake District.