The body of a man recovered from the River Severn in Shrewsbury on Wednesday has been confirmed to be that of 33-year-old Ashley Atkins from the West Midlands.

West Mercia Police said formal identification took place today and Mr Atkins's next of kin have been informed.

The force is investigating the circumstances leading up to his death and have referred the matter to the Independent Office for Police Conduct, because there had been "recent contact with the police".

BBC Radio Shropshire Sport

The recent two-year extension for AFC Telford's management team gives them some breathing space, assistant manager Phil Trainer has said.

This is the first management job for him and Gavin Cowan and Trainer explained it "gives us a bit of a time to build our team and see where we can take Telford".

Image source, Getty Images

Trainer said that when they arrived at the club, Cowan said he wanted to "bring the good times back" and that nobody believed they would be up near the top of the table, challenging for promotion.

They go into this weekend's games looking to clinch their place in the play-off places.

A charity says it has seen a rise in the number of "wolf lookalike" dogs needing to be rehomed.

BBC News England

A specialist service in Birmingham is trying to make life easier for homeless people by helping them with where to turn when they need medical help.

The Homeless Health Exchange is an NHS practice exclusively for people who are homeless.

It has just over 1,000 patients on its register - more than double the number it had when it opened 16 years ago.

Typically, patients are aged in their 30s or 40s, although they sometimes present themselves with symptoms comparable to people in their 70s - something surgery GP Sarah Marwick describes as "shocking".

Read more about their work and the homeless people they're helping here on the BBC website.

The Levellers will be opening this summer's Godiva Festival in Coventry.

The festival will be held in the War Memorial Park over three days from 5 July and they've been chosen to perform on the main stage on the Friday night.

Image source, Getty Images

The boyband Busted, famous for songs like What I Go to School For and Year 3000, will be Sunday's headliners.

Image source, Getty Images

Chinese journalist Kong Linlin is accused of assaulting a delegate at the Conservative Conference.

Some great news if you're planning to get out and about this Easter weekend.

Temperatures are set to stay in 20s from Good Friday through to Easter Monday, with cloudless skies.

A court has issued a warrant for the arrest of a Chinese journalist who is accused of assaulting a Conservative Party activist at last year's party conference in Birmingham.

It's the second time the Crown Prosecution Service has brought charges against Linlin Kong, after deciding last November to discontinue the case after a review of the available evidence.

Image source, CCTV-13

The 49-year-old is alleged to have assaulted conference delegate Enoch Lieu during a discussion about political freedoms in Hong Kong.

The warrant was issued after she failed to appear at Birmingham Magistrates' Court on Thursday.

Coventry Live

Three stories from the Coventry Live website today:

• Teenager suffers multiple injuries in stabbing, external
• Friday night Godiva Festival headliner announced, external
• Pub reopens after £200,000 makeover, external

The family of a 70-year-old woman who died after being hit by a motorbike say her death's left "a huge hole in our family".

Image source, West Midlands Police

West Midlands Police says Bernice Evans was crossing Wolverhampton Road, Sandwell, West Midlands, on 10 April when she was hit, and died at the scene.

In their tribute, her family added, external that it was "one of the hardest things we have had to go through as a family" but she would "never be forgotten".

Officers say they spoke to two motorcyclists at the scene and they're helping with enquiries.

Cannabis plants with an estimated street value of up to £100,000 have been found in a house in Coventry.

They were discovered when firefighters were called to deal with a blaze at an address on Armstrong Avenue in the early hours of this morning.

Image source, Google

They found 100 plants inside and West Midlands Police are now investigating.

Work has started on a new £100m hospital in Birmingham for both private and NHS patients.

Image source, VINCI Construction UK

Construction firm Vinci UK says the 138-bed facility is being built on the Queen Elizabeth Hospital site. , external

It says it will be run in a partnership between private healthcare firm HCA Healthcare UK and University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust Foundation Trust.

Vinci UK says it'll give acute care to private patients as well as have extra capacity for NHS patients to get specialist treatment.

Giles Latcham
BBC Midlands Today

Neighbours living on a street in Birmingham where a man was fatally shot this afternoon have described it as a "lovely neighbourhood".

West Midlands Police started a murder investigation after saying the 28-year-old was shot on Church Road, Erdington at around midday.

One neighbour told me she heard "enormous screaming between two or three men" but didn't see anything as she was "too frightened to open my door".

Another added that it was: "Very shocking to me, very concerning especially as I'm living on my own, I'm very frightened myself."

Allen Cook
BBC News

As police probe a fatal shooting in Birmingham this afternoon, external, the latest government figures show the city has more than double the national average of gun crimes.

The latest Office of National Statistics figures show, external West Midlands Police recorded 24 offences per 100,000 residents between 2017 and 2018.

The average for England and Wales was 11 and every other police force recorded a lower average apart from the Metropolitan Police.

The statistics also show that, after a fall in recorded firearms offences from 2007 to 2016, the number started to rise from 542 in 2015-16 to 681 in 2017-18.

Police say the operation was the most "significant" ever identified in Hereford.

Allen Cook
BBC News

Birmingham MP Jack Dromey says , externalthe entire community of Erdington "is truly shocked" by the fatal shooting of a man this afternoon.

The 28-year-old was killed on Church Road with West Midlands Police saying they've started a murder inquiry.

Mr Dromey added that local people would "back the police to track down his killer".

Giles Latcham
BBC Midlands Today

I've arrived on Church Road, Erdington, Birmingham this afternoon after a fatal shooting this afternoon was confirmed by police.

A neighbour's told me she saw a victim lying on the ground in front of a silver-coloured car., external

The street has been sealed off and at least two tents have been put up by West Midlands Police.

Emergency services responded to reports of an explosion at John Gulson Primary School in Coventry.

Carl Benjamin refuses to apologise as local party members call for him to be deselected.

Allen Cook
BBC News

The ambulance service has confirmed paramedics treated one patient involved in the fatal shooting in Birmingham this afternoon.

They say they had reports of a gunshot incident on Church Road, Erdington, at midday.

Paramedics found one man who was in cardiac arrest but say, despite performing CPR and giving him advanced life support, he died at the scene.