Armed seige at flat

An armed siege was continuing today after a gunman fired on police.

Officers were shot at when they attempted to arrest a man in Hackney yesterday afternoon. In a separate incident less than half-a-mile away a man was killed in what is believed to be a drugsrelated shooting.

The stand-off in Hackney was triggered at 11am yesterday when police investigated "a suspicious unattended vehicle" in Marvin Street. As officers attempted to remove it, a black man appeared at the window of a nearby flat. Neighbours said he brandished a handgun.

Four hours later armed officers attempted to arrest the man but came under fire. The area was cordoned off.

Officers from Operation Trident, which investigates black-onblack gun crime, are heading a murder hunt over the first shooting, in Morning Lane, which killed a man of 26.