A taxi-driver in his 30s has died after being shot as he sat in his car in west Belfast last night. The motive for the shooting was not clear and RUC Assistant Chief Constable, Mr Bill Stewart, said the police had no reason to believe at this stage that it was sectarian. The murder is the first in Northern Ireland since the completion of the peace agreement on Good Friday.
Two gunmen shot the victim, named locally as Mark O'Neill, in the chest and legs. Ambulances arrived within minutes, but Mr O'Neill died on his way to the Royal Victoria Hospital.
The attack was carried out at around 6.45 p.m., at the back of Apollo Taxis depot in the Shaw's Road area of Andersonstown, in west Belfast. It was the first killing since the Northern Ireland Agreement was concluded a week ago.
A local woman who held Mr O'Neill in her arms until the ambulances arrived said she kept calling to Mr O'Neill in a bid to keep him awake. She said the shooting didn't "say much for peace the agreement" and that some "poor family was going to receive bad news tonight".
Eyewitnesses said the gunmen were walking about the area several minutes before the shooting. "There were two gunmen, they were seen hanging about the area before the shooting. They were standing and talking and then they just walked up to him and shot him. He was shot in the back of the legs," said a local man, who declined to be named.
SDLP councillor Alex Attwood, urged people "not to rush to judgment and to remain calm. This may prove to be non-sectarian in nature, although the circumstances have yet to be fully clarified. This is a time for moderation and not hysteria."
The Northern secretary, Ms Mowlam, said she was shocked at the murder which had happened "at a time when the people of Northern Ireland had every reason to be hopeful for the future."