Woman shot dead by robbers in raid on jewellers' shop

Britain's spreading gun crime epidemic claimed another victim when a woman shop owner was shot dead in front of her husband and daughter. Marian Bates was killed after two armed robbers stormed the jewellery shop she owned with her family in Arnold, Nottinghamshire.

Mrs Bates, who was in her sixties, died from gunshot wounds in the chest shortly after arriving at hospital yesterday morning. Her husband Victor and daughter Xanthe were treated for head injuries.

Assistant Chief Constable Peter Ditchett said: "I want information from the public about every gun and anyone connected with guns in our community to come forward. We want to put these people away, get people like this out of our lives. I am sick of it, sick to the teeth."

Residents in Arnold described their shock as they paid tribute to a woman well known in the community, and friends described how the shop had been targeted twice by attackers in the past.

Police issued an urgent appeal for information about the murder, which was carried out by two men who arrived and fled the scene on a motorbike later abandoned nearby.

The first attacker was described as white, of medium build, 5ft 4in, in his late teens or early twenties, and wearing a helmet with luminous yellow streaks. The second was described as 6ft, a scrawny build, a similar age, with a dark motorcycle jacket and carrying a crowbar.