Man dead after shoot-out in south London

Shooting: Forensic science officers at the scene this morning

One man was killed and another seriously injured in what is believed to have been a shoot-out in a London street today.

After the gun battle in Streatham High Road, in which a number of shots were exchanged, the men were driven by friends in separate cars to different hospitals .

A 35-year-old man died at Mayday Hospital in Croydon, while the other man, who is in his thirties, is in a serious condition at an undisclosed south London hospital.

Police were investigating whether the shooting was gang-related. A silvercoloured handgun found at the scene is being examined by ballistics experts.

A large section of the road was closed to traffic today as police hunted for spent ammunition cases.

Some of the people involved in the shooting are understood to have left the nearby Starlight Room just before police were called when residents heard a number of shots at around 5.20am.

Up to four people have been arrested and several others are being questioned by murder squad detectives.

The Met's Trident team, which deals with gun crime in the black community, are investigating the shooting. Both victims are believed to be black.

The shooting was yards from Streatham Ice Rink where teenager James Andre Smartt-Ford, 16, was shot dead in February. He was the first victim of a wave of gun-related killings, mainly involving young black men.

Last month the Met's Trident team launched a hard-hitting campaign urging people in the black community to come forward if they had any information on gun crime.

But on 14 October Philip Poru, 18, from Peckham, was shot dead as he sat in a car parked in a street in Woolwich-Residents who lived near the scene said it was a result of rising gang tensions.

A Met spokesman said today: "We believe we know the deceased man's identity, however we await to inform next of kin and for formal identification-We were also notified of a second man who had been taken to hospital suffering from gunshot wounds. He remains in a serious condition."

Anyone with information on today's incident can call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. Streatham High Road was closed today between Streatham railway station and Greyhound Lane. Trafficlink said there was chaos at the height of the rush hour with queues stretching back to Norbury and "heavy delays throughout the area".

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