Man in 20s shot dead in the street

DETECTIVES have launched a murder investigation after another life was lost in Britain's gun and knife epidemic.

- Paul Jeeves

A man in his 20s was shot dead on a South London street and left lying in a pool of blood.

The murder follows days of violence in which four people were stabbed to death in West Yorkshire last weekend, a 16-year-old boy knifed to death in North London and two men killed in stabbings in South London.

In Thursday's crime, residents in Battersea rushed out as paramedics battled in vain to save the man's life.

Panic