Parents fears as gunshots fired by Birmingham school gates

Sep 16 2008 By Kat Keogh and Chris Henwood

A GUNMAN opened fire just yards away from a Birmingham primary school in the second shooting incident outside the premises in a week.

Police sealed off part of Nursery Road, Lozells, after two shots were fired close to Anglesey Junior School yesterday.

They were alerted at about 1pm. No-one was injured.

Asif Khan, owner of Asif’s Chippy opposite the school, was serving customers when shots rang out.

The 29-year-old said: “I heard two shots and then heard a woman screaming.

“I looked out of my door and saw a silver car and by the time I walked out I heard a car skidding away. We are not safe here any more.

“Our customers are scared, they don’t want to walk in here.

“There were women and children around and this happened in broad daylight.”

By 3pm, worried parents gathered at the edge of the cordon to collect their children from school.

Mohammed Khan, who has two children at the school, said: “My friend was across the road when it happened and he was very scared.

“If this is happening at three or four in the morning it is bad enough, but in broad daylight it is different because anyone can get hurt.”

It was the second time Nursery Road had been sealed off by police following a shooting in under a week. Last Tuesday parents dropping off their children off at the school were met by a police cordon after an armed robbery on a convenience store in the street.

The school was open as normal today and letters have been sent to parents to reassure them and to ask that children be dropped off and collected outside the school gates.