Police launch manhunt after Valentine's Day pub murder

MURDER investigation is under way after a woman was shot dead while sitting in her car by a pub on Valentine's Night.

- By Tony Whitfield

• Female victim is shot dead in car park

• Car and gun found abandoned on bridge

Armed police swooped on the venue after "reports of a disturbance" just after 7pm.

The woman, in her 40s, suffered injuries "consistent with gunshot wounds" and was declared dead at the scene on Friday evening.

The suspect, said to be known to her, fled from outside the Three Horseshoes pub, in the village of Knockholt near Sevenoaks, Kent, and a manhunt was launched.

Officers later found a car linked to the murder, with a gun left inside, 17 miles away.

It was parked on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which spans the Thames at Dartford.

Detective Chief Inspector David Higham said last night: "Call handlers received reports of a man on the wrong side of the barrier and we are not ruling out the possibility that he may have entered the water."

He added that his officers were only looking for one suspect and that there was no danger to the public.

A lifeboat and police helicopter searched the river late on Friday night.