Wounded mother suspected of shooting her son, 4

A mother is believed to have shot her four-year-old son in their home yesterday before turning the gun on herself.

Patricia McCarvill, a mother of two children, was critically ill and under armed police guard in hospital after the incident at her home in Dover, Kent.

Armed officers found the body of the child and his injured mother at their terraced home after being called by a neighbour who had heard gunshots just after noon yesterday, a police spokeswoman said.

Armed police then arrived with paramedics and went into the house, before the woman was brought out by paramedics on a stretcher with a breathing mask over her face. She was taken away in an ambulance.

A neighbour said that he saw a woman run out of the house with her right side covered in blood. She then ran back inside, the neighbour said.

He said: "They are a really, really nice ordinary family. They did ordinary family things like bike riding and playing tennis together."

Detective Chief Inspector Brian Roberts, who is leading the investigation, said: "A pathologist and a ballistics firearms expert have been working at the scene.

"A post-mortem examination on the boy will be carried out later this evening at the Kent and Canterbury Hospital.

"We are not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident."