Brixton shooting: Two men dead as police start hunt for gunman

Eyewitnesses told the BBC they heard 12 gunshots

Two men have died after a car chase in south London ended with a Deliveroo driver being knocked off his moped and another man fatally shot.

The moped rider was hit by one of two cars involved in the shooting on Railton Road, Brixton, on Sunday evening, the Metropolitan Police said.

Detectives believe a man then got out of the car which crashed with the moped and was chased by another man before being fatally shot.

No arrests have been made.

In an update on Monday afternoon, the Met said the gunman who got back in his car and fled the area and is being hunted.

A Deliveroo driver working near the scene told the PA Media agency he knew one of the victims, who had been making his last delivery of the day when he died.

Paulo Silva, 42, described him as a "good boy" and "young" and said he had been planning to go to Brazil in December.

Speaking at the cordon Ch Supt Colin Wingrove told reporters there is nothing to suggest the Deliveroo rider was an intended target.

Forensic officers have been searching the area

Witnesses have told the BBC about a dozen shots were fired during the shooting, at about 19:50 GMT.

White forensic tents have been put up along Railton Road as teams investigate, where debris can be seen strewn across the road.

Two crashed vehicles can be seen at the crime scene - a silver car which has lost one of its tyres - and a moped.

A single-decker 322 bus is also within the police cordon.

Police officers, firearm officers, paramedics and an air ambulance were called to the scene on Sunday

One local resident said: "I've got a teenage son. He came in at 19:00 yesterday and I was thinking, 'what if I gave him another hour to stay out?'

"It makes me scared, I have anxiety all the time. I don't really want to let him out but at the same time you have to let them make their own choices and be their own person."

She added: "I just get scared that he might get caught in the crossfire, or mistaken identity or something like that. It's appalling."

A number of roads in the Railton Road area have been closed

Helen Marasha, development director for Big Kid Foundation, which runs a local adventure playground, said a counsellor as well as other support staff were at the centre to offer to support for anyone affected.

"This is obviously huge for this whole community, it has a huge impact on all of us," she said.

"These are people that the whole community care about and there's a lot of people who are hurting and need support."

At the scene

BBC reporter Matt Graveling

A small crowd has gathered around the police cordon, as a couple of floral tributes are laid on the corner of Chancer Road and Rainton Road.

One of those who has gathered here is local Labour councillor Donatus Anyanwu.

He tells me he has come to check on the community and to make sure they are reassured. I've seen one man try to jump the cordon but he was swiftly stopped by officers.

Many residents are currently unable to get to their home due to the size of the police cordon. Officers advised him and others to go to the town hall.

Ch Supt Wingrove said he was shocked and saddened by the shooting.

He added: "We are supporting specialist crime detectives, who are working at pace to confirm the specific sequence of events and identify and arrest those responsible.

"I would urge anyone with any information, however small, to come forward to help bring whoever is responsible to justice."

London gun crime in numbers

• The shooting comes five days after a triple shooting in Ilford, east London, which resulted in two men dying

• This follows a spate of shootings in July which saw three men die in separate attacks in six days

• Before those killings, there had been no firearms deaths in London since 31 October last year

• In the whole of 2021, there were 12 fatal shootings among a total of 134 homicides recorded by police

• In April the Met said it had seen a reduction in gun crime, with the number of all shootings, including fatal and non-fatal, down from 283 in 2019/20 to 196 in 2021/22

• BBC analysis shows a year-on-year decrease in the number of recorded gun crimes in the capital

• For this year up to the end of September, the force recorded 9,313 gun crime offences - a 4% down on the previous 12 months

• In August this year, 158 gun-related offences were recorded, the largest one-month total since September 2020 when 166 were recorded

Source: BBC / Met Police