7 killed in house with alleged drug link

Six men and one woman died, and three more people were injured, after masked gunmen on Thursday night burst into a dilapidated, seemingly deserted house in Philadelphia.

Neighbours said four men wearing masks were seen running toward the house, firing weapons, and police said that is the only description of the attackers they have. No suspects were immediately arrested and no weapon has been recovered, Ms Carmen Torres of the Philadelphia Police she said.

A neighbour described the house, about 200 feet away from the Martha Washington Elementary School, as a "drug house". Later Deputy Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson said two of the victims had been selling drugs, and a small amount of crack cocaine was found in the house.

"The same scenario is played out every day: crack house, school. Crack house, church. Crack house, neighbourhood," said Mr Malik Aziz of the community organisation Philadelphia Making a Difference Against Guns, Drugs and Violence.

The house where the shooting happened was among a group of about a dozen dilapidated homes with boarded-up windows, fallen awnings and overgrown lawns.

Mr Derrick Long told the Philadelphia Inquirer that he had rushed to the scene after police called to tell him his 18year-old nephew, Tyrone, was among those killed. "The family is trying to be strong," Mr Long said. "We've got to. This was God's way."

Philadelphia is one of the murder capitals of the US, with 306 killings in the city this year so far, an increase of 28 on last year's total. Figures published yesterday show the death toll as only exceeded in New York (636), Los Angeles (504) and Chicago (601).

FBI figures for the first six months of 2000 show a decline of 1.8 per cent in the murder rate but a rise in a number of the largest cities.

The pattern is similar across the country with many cities reflecting the LA attrition among its young people - 40 per cent of casualties are between 17 and 23 years old, 60 per cent under 30. Most of the deaths are gang or drug-related, often random "drive-by" shootings.

In Wakefield, Massachusetts, people were dealing with the aftermath of another mass shooting. Family and friends gathered on Thursday evening in St Joseph's Church for a multi-denominational service for the seven victims of the shooting in Edgewater Technologies, just 50 yards away.

The church, which was used to counsel survivors in the immediate aftermath of the killings, was packed with 800 mourners on a bitterly cold night. Cardinal Bernard Law led a moment of reflection, noting that Thursday was the Feast of the Innocents, honouring the baby boys who were put to death at the order of King Herod.

"The favours of the Lord are not exhausted," the cardinal said. "Ours is the task to replace a culture of death with a culture of life . . ."