Community in fear as Raoul Moat manhunt goes on

Jul 5 2010 by Neil McKay, The Journal

FEAR of a gunman at large continued to spread yesterday as the region woke to find a police officer had been shot during the night.

What had started as a dramatic episode localised to Birtley in Gateshead quickly spread across the Tyneside area, with the second shooting taking place in Denton Burn in Newcastle, in the early hours of yesterday morning.

For a second night, families across the city went to bed in the knowledge that Raoul Moat, the man police suspect of carrying out the shootings, had still not been tracked down by police.

Neighbours told of hearing gun shots and hectic police activity close to the roundabout junction between the A1 western bypass and the A69, where PC David Rathband was shot yesterday.

Mother-of-two Susan Coates, of South View, East Denton, said: “I heard two loud bangs between12.30am 12.45am. At first I thought it was a car backfiring, but not when I heard the second bang.

“I looked out of the window and within minutes I could see a lot of flashing lights. There seemed to be an awful lot of police activity.

“It was only when I heard the news today that I realised it was connected to the gunman who shot the two people in Gateshead.”

Paul Campbell, also of South View, said: “I was just about to go to bed when I heard two loud bangs.

“I looked out and could see a lot of police lights, but the view towards the junction is obscured by trees from my house so I could not see a great deal.

“Police patrol cars and paramedic vehicles are often parked on that flyover.”

As communities across the area continued to come to terms with the shock of events unfolding on their doorstep, crowds gathered around a police Press conference to hear the latest on the manhunt.

Families close to the shooting of Chris Hall and Samantha Stobbart, which took place at Scafell in Vigo, Birtley, could only look on as forensic teams continued to scour the scene.

Andrew Skeoch, 19, of Vigo, said: “This is only what you see on the films. This is not what you see in this area. The worst that has happened before is a lost dog. “

Local councillor Neil Weatherley, who lives about a mile from the incident, said: “I am in total shock to hear what’s happened.

“By and large Birtley is quite a quiet backwater. We have issues like everywhere else but to have a murder and a serious injury like this is horrific.

“Everyone in Birtley will be absolutely shocked and stunned.”