Teenager shot five times in Manchester

A 15-year-old boy was in a serious condition in hospital yesterday after being shot five times during an incident in Manchester in which another teenager was also shot, police said.

The two victims were with a group of youths in the Ardwick Green area of the city shortly before midnight on Saturday when a silver car with four or five men inside pulled up beside them.

"One of the men then got out of the car and fired shots towards the group," a Greater Manchester Police spokeswoman said.

The 15-year-old local boy was hit in the chest, back, groin, buttock and thigh. He is in a serious but stable condition in hospital.

A 13-year-old boy from nearby Longsight suffered a bullet wound to his left leg and is in a stable condition in hospital.

"This incident is obviously very serious," Superintendent Gerry McGowan told reporters.

"The early indications are this is not a random attack. However what we cannot say is whether the two young men who received bullet wounds were the intended victims of the attack."

Gun crime has been on the rise in Britain in recent years, often blamed on drugs.

Recent high-profile incidents include the killing of female police officer, Sharon Beshenivsky, following an armed robbery in Bradford last November, while in Nottingham in 2004 Danielle Beccan, 14, was gunned down in an apparently motiveless attack.

The government has introduced tougher sentences for anyone caught in possession of a firearm although campaigners have called for more to be done.