Residents on a housing estate plagued by gun crime called in police after hearing shots fired - but it was just a bird shoot. Armed police swooped on the area on the outskirts of Edinburgh and discovered it was a ‘pest control’ exercise by a local landowner.
One worried local in Gilmerton said they thought there was another gang war breaking out when the sound of gunfire could be heard from around 8.30am last Sunday morning. Residents as far as one mile away in Southhouse said they could hear the guns going off all day.
The southside of the capital has been rocked by a series of shootings over recent years including the murder of boxing champion Alex McKinnon in the Marmion pub in 2006. Since then there have been dozens of incidents including a drive-by last year when a gunman opened fire on a house in Burdiehouse as children played nearby.
