Prayers Said for Fatally Shot British Teenager

A church service for 15-year-old Billy Cox, the third teenager shot dead in South London in the past two weeks, has seen prayers read to comfort a devastated community.

During the service at Christ Church Vicarage, in Clapham, Rev Sue Peake said the local community had been shocked and dismayed by the killing.

It comes shortly after a man in his 20s was taken to hospital after being shot in the leg in west London overnight. His condition is not thought to be life-threatening.

Police are trying to work out whether the shooting is linked to an incident on Harrow Road at around 0200 GMT on Sunday when shots were fired and two men, one with a handgun, were seen running away.

The shooting comes just a day after a 28-year-old man was fatally shot in Hackney, east London, becoming the fourth victim to die from being shot in the city this month.

Cox died on Wednesday at his home in Clapham, south-west London, having sustained a fatal gunshot wound to the chest, according to a post-mortem examination.

He was found dying by his younger sister.

At the church service in Clapham, Rev Sue Peake said: "This murder has highlighted the hideous pressure on youngsters growing up in our inner cities."

Prime Minister Tony Blair has announced a major review of firearms laws following the shootings in London, saying that the worrying increase in gun crime being witnessed across Britain is a "specific problem within a specific criminal culture".

Although he admitted the trend was extremely serious, he did say that gun violence was not a "general state of British society".