Shot teenager 'a victim of gang war'

Student Philip Poru, 18, was killed while sitting with friends in Plumstead on Sunday night. They were approached by two men who demanded to know what they were doing and where they were from.

When they replied Peckham one of the men produced a handgun and fired several shots into the silver Ford Fiesta.

An 18-year-old friend of Mr Poru was also hit and seriously injured. He is said to be stable under armed guard in hospital.

Witnesses said they found the teenagers slumped out of the car, two of them bleeding heavily. They were were screaming that they had been shot by a Somalian gang.

A post mortem examination at Greenwich mortuary gave Mr Poru's cause of death as gunshot wounds to the chest.

He was the 22nd teenager to be murdered in the capital this year.

Detectives investigating the killing are examining possible links to a shooting and the stabbing of three men in recent days. Residents on the Woolwich Common Estate said the area was a "war zone", plagued with escalating tit-for-tat violence between Somalian drug pushers and other gangs of African youths.

Children as young as 11 were being dragged into drug running, one said.

A 19-year-old Somalian was seriously injured when he was shot in the chest on the nearby Boyard Road estate shortly after midnight last Wednesday. Then last Friday three black youths were stabbed on Herbert Road. One is still in hospital.

Witnesses to Sunday's shooting said they heard between three and five shots in Long Walk car park around 9.45pm.

Resident Gabriel Komolafe, 37, rushed to help Mr Poru, trying to stop blood pouring from his neck before the ambulance came.

"He was slumped out of the car, half on the car park floor," Mr Komolafe said.

"The other one shot was slumped out of the car as well and there were screaming teenagers standing around trying to help them. We were parking when we found them. My hands were covered in blood and I'd left my two little boys and partner in the car - it was horrible."

Katrina Wright, 21, whose parents live on the estate, said: "The Somalians are trying to take over the estate from the other Africans and run all the drugs and guns on it. It's a war zone. They're fighting over it street by street. There's kids as young as 11 being dragged into this."

Marc Brace, 32, whose flat looks onto the carpark, said he had heard up to five shots. "It was rapid fire," he said. " I reckon it was a semi-automatic pistol."

Greenwich Borough Commander, Chief Superintendent Chris Jarratt, said he was putting extra patrols in the area.

Anyone with information should call 020 8247 4553 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.