Police hunting the killer of 11-year-old Rhys Jones in Liverpool said they arrested five more people, including two girls, today.
A spokesman for Merseyside police confirmed that five teenagers were arrested from the Croxteth and Norris Green areas of Liverpool. The boys are aged 15, 16 and 19 and the girls are 15 and 18. Another boy, aged 15, is already in custody after he was arrested yesterday.
Rhys Jones (11). Photo: Merseyside Police/PA Wire
The five were detained in Liverpool, a Merseyside Police spokesman said.
Detective Superintendent David Kelly said later one of the boys was injured during the arrest when he fell from a window through which, it was claimed, he was trying to escape. The officer said the boy's injuries were not life-threatening.
He called for a dark-haired woman seen pushing a pram in the area at the time of the shooting to come forward.
"We believe this woman may have passed by the person responsible for killing Rhys," he told reporters. He said the woman had been wearing white flared trousers and a dark top.
Detectives expressed concern at the lack of evidence from the public and urged people to "stand up and be counted".
Chief Superintendent Chris Armitt of Merseyside Police said he would protect people scared of reprisals from local gangs if they come forward.
"We understand that people are frightened, but people have got to stand up and be counted," he said. "We have not had the level of information about those key issues that we would expect and that we want. We understand those concerns and I'm trying to offer reassurance that we will do something about protecting people."
The 11-year-old schoolboy was shot dead outside a pub in the Croxteth area of Liverpool on Wednesday in an attack that British prime minister Gordon Brown called a "heinous crime".
Chief Supt Armitt said the boy may have been caught up in a long-running feud between rival gangs in Liverpool.
He appealed directly to the family and friends of the killer, believed to be a teenager aged 13-16 riding a BMX.
"If you have a member of your family who falls into that age group...who was out that night, who perhaps is nervous, concerned, behaving unusually, then perhaps parents or siblings of that individual need to be asking themselves questions," Armitt said.
Police also made an appeal for information over the public address system at half-time during the match between Everton and Blackburn Rovers at Goodison Park.
The football-loving schoolboy was a season-ticket holder at Everton with his father Stephen and brother Owen, who are both expected to attend the match in his honour.
Yesterday police arrested a 15-year-old boy on suspicion of Rhys's murder. Two others, aged 14 and 18, have been bailed.
The shooting was the latest in a spate of murders of young people across Britain this year that have focused attention on gang-related violence.
Two doormen were shot in a separate incident last night.