Cemetery shooting victim 'was abducted'

A man critically injured in a graveyard shooting in Northern Ireland had been abducted, police revealed today.

The 26-year-old was found by officers in the cemetery in Holywood, Co Down, with a gunshot wound to the chest at 2.30am after a single shot and the victim’s yells for help were heard by a nearby resident.

Detective Superintendent Graham Shield, the man leading the investigation, said paramilitary involvement was one of the possibilities being investigated.

He said the injured man had told police he had been abducted from a nearby petrol station before being shot in the Redburn Cemetery.

“We were able to speak to him and he was able to tell us that he had been abducted by three or four men from the area of Redburn filling station on the Old Holywood Road,” he said.

After undergoing emergency surgery, the man remained in a critical condition in hospital.

Police were treating the shooting as a case of attempted murder, they said, and detectives mounted door-to-door inquiries at homes around the cemetery and filling station.

The scene around the cemetery was cordoned off while a detailed forensic search of the area was carried out. No weapon has been found.

A primary school inside the cordoned area was forced to remain closed for the day and classes at a nearby college were halted.

North Down Ulster Unionist councillor Diana Peacocke said the town of Holywood was shocked, bewildered and appalled by the shooting.

“It is tragic that a few members of our society are intent on destroying human life,” she said.

“This close-knit town will be feeling disbelief and frustration upon hearing such news. Schoolchildren too have been disrupted as the local primary school close to the scene had to remain closed today.

“It goes without saying that anyone who is in possession of some vital facts regarding this incident should contact the police immediately.”