Child sees robbers shoot father

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An armed gang who shot and injured a man in west Belfast before stealing his legally-held guns, opened fire on him in front of his nine-year-old daughter.

Three children aged 13, 12 and nine were in the house at Larkspur Rise, off the Suffolk Road, during the raid.

The victim is a member of a gun club. It is understood the gang threatened the lives of two of the children.

They are also being blamed for stealing guns from a second house in nearby Ballymurphy. Two men were arrested.

The first robbery happened at about 1830 GMT on Wednesday.

Two of the children were upstairs when the gang arrived. The youngest, a girl, was in the room with her father when the men demanded the weapons kept in the house.

When the child's father refused, the gang threatened they would shoot him, and when he refused a second time, he was shot in the leg.

The robbers escaped with a number of handguns.

The children's mother, who did not want to be named, said: "When someone threatens to kill two of your children and shoots a member of your family in front of a nine-year-old girl, I don't think very much of them.

"This place doesn't need people like that."

Guns and ammunition

The second robbery happened a short time later, just a couple of miles away from the street where the first gun-owner was shot.

Three men burst into a house at Ballymurphy Road and forced the occupant to hand over several legally-held weapons and ammunition.

Police are investigating a link between the two robberies.

They arrested two men, aged 34 and 30, after noticing suspicious activity near Whiterock Leisure Centre. A car was also recovered.

The injured man's wounds are not believed to be life-threatening, while the other person was treated for shock.