Police in Britain are continuing to question two teenagers over the murder last night of an 11-year-old boy, who was shot dead in the street by a youth on a bicycle.
Boys arrive to lay flowers at the scene where an 11-year-old boy was shot dead in Liverpool last night. Image: Reuters.
Detectives are questioning a boy of 14 and another aged 18 on suspicion of the murder Rhys Jones, who was shot outside the Fir Tree pub in the Croxteth area of Liverpool.
It was the latest in a series of youth killings this year and one which British prime minister Gordon Brown said had shocked the whole country.
Media reports said the gunman was a hooded youth on a bicycle. Three shots were fired, one of which hit the schoolboy in the neck.
His mother, Melanie, cradled the youngster in the car park after a friend had told her of the shooting.
"The people responsible will be tracked down, arrested and punished," Mr Brown told reporters at Downing Street. He described the killing as "a heinous crime that has shocked the whole of the country".
"Where there is a need for new laws, we will pass them," he added.
The dead boy, who had been a pupil at Broad Square Primary School, was described as a "lovely boy" by his head teacher Elaine Spencer. She said he was a bright boy who had done well in recent exams.
Merseyside Chief Constable Bernard Hogan-Howe said Rhys, who lived nearby with his parents and 17-year-old brother, was an innocent victim.
"This is a sickening incident. In the past we have often come up against a wall of silence but enough is enough and the shooting of an 11-year-old boy demands that the community should come together," he said.
More than 100 officers are investigating the killing. Police sealed off the area around the pub in the area where Manchester United's Wayne Rooney grew up.
Witnesses said the boy, a keen Everton fan, was shot after a youth league football match on Wednesday evening.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said she was "desperately sorry" for the boy's family: "It is awful for them, it is awful for the community," she told BBC radio.
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.
Conservative leader David Cameron spoke this week of "anarchy in the UK" and accused Labour of failing to protect communities from crime.