Four injured after Liverpool pub shootings

Four people have been injured in three separate shootings at pubs in the West Derby area of Liverpool, police said yesterday.

Merseyside detectives said the "despicable" attacks happened as drinkers were leaving the pubs on Saturday night. No motive had been established so far.

In the first incident two people pulled up on a motorbike outside the Sefton Arms on Mill Lane and opened fire, hitting three people leaving the pub, police said.

Minutes later the same offenders fired shots at the West Derby Public house, although no one was injured.

In a separate shooting another assailant on a motorbike shot a bouncer in the leg at the Hare and Hounds pub on Mill Lane.

The three men who were injured as they were leaving the Sefton Arms were treated for shotgun pellet wounds and have been released from hospital. The man injured at the Hare and Hounds was shot in the leg and was kept in hospital for treatment overnight, police said.

"The people who are responsible for these despicable attacks showed a total disregard for anyone who may have been drinking in those pubs, or walking near to them, and they need to be caught," Superintendent Jon Roy said.