Hitman dressed as clown shoots patient

A hospital patient was under armed guard last night after being shot by a hitman who, dressed as a clown, bluffed his way into the building with a sawn-off shotgun hidden in a bunch of flowers.

Police would not give any details about a motive for the shooting, which happened as the 26-year-old patient was standing outside his private room at St Andrew's Hospital, Billericay, Essex, where he is being treated for acid burns suffered when he was abducted by two men.

After shooting the man in the shoulder at point-blank range, the gunman made a clean getaway.

Detective Chief Inspector Wilson Kennedy, leading the inquiry, said: "We are treating this as attempted murder. It was obviously a concerted effort to kill the gentleman."

The gunman was wearing a clown's wig, a red nose and a set of fake Dracula teeth when he struck at 8.30pm on Wednesday. Detectives said hospital staff believed the man could have come from a kissogram agency.

He asked for directions to the ward where the wounded man was being treated and gave the patient's name.

The victim has been undergoing treatment at the hospital - a specialist burns unit - since the abduction in Purfleet, Essex, in August when two men sprayed acid in his face, bundled him into the boot of a car and then dumped him in Dagenham half an hour later.

Det Ch Insp Kennedy said: "After this attack, he refused to co-operate with us about the motive. We hope to speak to him later about this attack. I can't say why he was shot."