Boys aged 13 and 15 gunned down in suburban street

TWO schoolboys, aged 13 and 15, were found shot yards from each other on a suburban London street at lunchtime yesterday.

In the latest grim incident in a bloody year for the capital, police and ambulances were called after the boys were shot in apparently related incidents.

It appeared the shootings happened after a fight between youths got out of control. Minutes later up to six ambulances and a large number of police officers raced to the scene. The youngsters were taken to different hospitals.

Last night bloodsoaked clothes remained strewn on the corner of a road off Wealdstone High Street in Harrow, north-west London. One victim was found on the high street, the other on a side road.

Several hours after the shooting passers-by could still see a grey Adidas hoodie and a white T-shirt on the pavement next to dried pools of blood. A first aid kit was abandoned nearby.

A shocked shopkeeper said she saw a group of four to five youths fighting outside her shop before one suddenly collapsed in a pool of blood.

The witness, who asked not to be named, added: ‘It all happened so fast. It was really frightening. We saw a group of people fighting and shouting loudly and suddenly there was someone on the floor covered in blood. People rushed out to help and there was a lot of panic. It was horrible.’

Another shopkeeper said they thought a bullet had grazed the back of a boy’s head and that he was ‘lucky to be alive’.

The manager of a betting shop, who did not give his name, said he was walk- ing past on his lunch break and saw people gathered around a black youth on the ground outside Specsavers. He said: ‘He was holding his head down. I could not see his face but could see his white T- shirt was proper covered in blood. He was sitting calmly as the paramedics were looking after him.’

The man described Wealdstone as ‘a kind of rough area and it can be a bit aggressive’.

He added that ‘seeing police around here is just another day’ and he was used to seeing boys ‘just hanging around in the street’.

Another witness said he heard two gunshots before he rushed out of his shop to see a gang of youths crowded around the injured boy.

‘It sounded like a pistol or a revolver,’ he said. ‘ The boy looked 16 perhaps. Blood was coming out the back of his neck and down the front of his chest.

‘The group looked like the gangs I have seen around here. They are just school kids. They seemed to be his friends. One was putting a sponge against his neck, which had turned red. It was completely soaked in blood.

‘They were shouting and running up and down the street.’

Other residents expressed concern for their safety amid an increase in the number of drug gangs in the area.

Mohammed Fahmy, 30, said: ‘It doesn’t feel safe here. It’s getting worse. I see drug dealers out here every day. Most of them are teenagers. Even the smallest are selling drugs.

‘This is normal for us now. It makes you wonder what the police are doing. There needs to be more cameras and more police on the street.’

A Scotland Yard spokesman said the 13-year-old suffered a shotgun pellet wound to the head. Both boys suffered head injuries but neither was thought to be in a life-threatening condition, she added. Asked if the incidents were linked, she said that was one line of inquiry.

‘His T-shirt was covered in blood’