Hungerford Style Goings On In Cumbria

[Bruce Rioja]

I don't know if many of you have heard about this but this morning a man with a shotgun has gone on the rampage around West Cumbria.

As far as I know they haven't caught him yet.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/10214661.stm

[P.O.S.]

Good to see Sky News isn't going down the sensationalist route either... with its live updates from any twitter account posting updates about it

"Dear me! 13 people have been shot around the whitehaven area in cumbria by a crazy guy in a car. What is the world coming too!?"

Indeed...

[Athers]

Off up there on Friday for a long weekend, crikey.

10 deaths, Christ.

The only surprise here is that Sky News helicopters aren't flying around trying to capture the police shooting this maniac

Let's hope he's caught

[Athers]

13.23 Alan Hannah, 68, of Great Broughton, tells the Whitehaven News the gunman pulled up alongside him at traffic lights near Whitehaven police station.
He says: "As I turned past the police station, I saw all these officers running out and realised something major was going on so I moved over to the right-hand lane.
"Then a car pulled up on the left, stopping at the lights.
"I saw a man with a large shotgun and his windscreen was smashed. I drove through the red light to get into Lowther Street and get out of the way. I got home safely but was very shaken."

fecking hell!

[P.O.S.]

The gunman has been found dead according to reports.

they can reopen Sellafield now

[Bruce Rioja]

13.23 Alan Hannah, 68, of Great Broughton, tells the Whitehaven News the gunman pulled up alongside him at traffic lights near Whitehaven police station.
He says: "As I turned past the police station, I saw all these officers running out and realised something major was going on so I moved over to the right-hand lane.
"Then a car pulled up on the left, stopping at the lights.
"I saw a man with a large shotgun and his windscreen was smashed. I drove through the red light to get into Lowther Street and get out of the way. I got home safely but was very shaken."

fecking hell!

Aye - he gave the same interview to 5Live. It's absolutely impossible to truly appreciate what that must have felt like.

[Gary the Enfield]

I was in Keswick on Monday. Bloody Hell!

[Hoboh]

Sad

I love Cumbria

Glad the shooting seems to be at an end Rest in peace the victims and sympathys to those whose loved ones are dead or injured.

Sad Sad day.

hobo

[as]

A disgruntled taxi driver with a loaded shotgun, doesn't sound right for Cumbria.

[Gertie]

This was quite alarming as my daughters are in Cumbria staying with their grandparents for a few days. We always remark on how NOTHING ever happens in Cumbria and now this.

The strange thing was my neighbour couldn't wait to come round to tell me and so I spent a few minutes in panic as she couldn't recall where in Cumbria this was taking place. Do some people revel in sharing this kind of news, or is it a duty to inform others if their family may be in peril?? My other neighbour is an armed officer in the Lancashire constabulary and was called in on his shift day off. He probably hadn't even got to the M6 when it was all over.

I called my parents who were sat in the garden unawares of all the drama. Whilst they don't live in Whitehaven they do know people who do it's all very sad.

[Athers]

Am not too sure about quality of the response - first shooting reported 1035am, but it was about 2pm when they found his body and after he'd committed a dozen seperate shootings, and driven past a police station early on.. Too small a force for too big a geographic area I suppose.

[TANGODANCER]

Am not too sure about quality of the response - first shooting reported 1035am, but it was about 2pm when they found his body and after he'd committed a dozen seperate shootings, and driven past a police station early on.. Too small a force for too big a geographic area I suppose.

They can only get to the scene of the first reported shooting. After that the guy could be anywhere. Unless somebody got a description of the guy, the vehicle and its registration what do they do? Only thing they can is broadcast any info and set up road-blocks thinking the guy would run miles away from the area. Obviously, he didn't. Tragic all round but I'm sure the police were frantic to nail him..

[TANGODANCER]

This was quite alarming as my daughters are in Cumbria staying with their grandparents for a few days. We always remark on how NOTHING ever happens in Cumbria and now this.

The strange thing was my neighbour couldn't wait to come round to tell me and so I spent a few minutes in panic as she couldn't recall where in Cumbria this was taking place. Do some people revel in sharing this kind of news, or is it a duty to inform others if their family may be in peril?? My other neighbour is an armed officer in the Lancashire constabulary and was called in on his shift day off. He probably hadn't even got to the M6 when it was all over.

I called my parents who were sat in the garden unawares of all the drama. Whilst they don't live in Whitehaven they do know people who do it's all very sad.

Think if I'd been your neighbur I'd have done the same Gert. At least you could ring and warn your parents. Probably had your best interest at heart.

[P.O.S.]

Im sat watching the news at home now and I cant believe the scale of this. I was skeptical at first of the way the media was beginning to report it but this is a terrible event and one which will sadly go down in history.

I think just how random each attack was and the location of it all is chilling. The fallout from this will last for months and years, a shocking crime.

[boltonboris]

38 people killed or injured.. Absolutely horrible

[General Mannerheim]

That's what I can't understand, hours on end he was roaming around. Surely there can't be that many roads? They even predicted he was on his way to Boot and warned residents to stay indoors, how could they not catch him before he got there? They had his reg since the first shooting.

[boltonboris]

That's what I can't understand, hours on end he was roaming around. Surely there can't be that many roads? They even predicted he was on his way to Boot and warned residents to stay indoors, how could they not catch him before he got there? They had his reg since the first shooting.

And he went up and down the same roads more than once apparently

[William the White]

Have to say it's hard to imagine the Cumbrian police being well trained and up to speed on random killers roaming the roads of one of England's largest counties with one of its smallest police forces (for good reason)...

What has happened is beyond horrible but I'd be slow to judgement here...

[TANGODANCER]

Could anybody envisage something like this happening anywhere, let alone in Cumbria? Crime prevention can't apply in something like this; it's only a case of police being involved after the crime occured. This is somebody who flipped and just shot people down, anybody in his path it appears. Since he killed himself it's a pity he didn't just do it in the first instance instead of murdering a bunch of innocent people along the way. The big question remains: Why?

[Lord Kangana]

I suspect Tango, like far too many places on this sceptred isle, there may be reasons found among the high unemployemt and general hopelessness of many a person in the shithole that is West Cumbria these days. This isn't the place where everyone goes hiking, its old semi-industrial working towns with not much going on. Might be, might not be, but when everyone keeps saying "why Cumbria?", I hear the voices of my old work colleagues, who to a man and woman described the area as shite.