Darren Williams, 45, still managed to get hold of a shotgun to blast wife Rachel, 37, and wound two customers.

He dropped the gun after hitting her in the knee at Carol-Ann’s salon in Malpas, Newport, Gwent, and drove to a wood about a mile away where he killed himself with another gun.

Witnesses saw customers with their wet hair wrapped in towels running out of the salon after the shooting at 2.20pm on Friday.

Military enthusiast Williams was jailed for four months in 2004 after police found an “arsenal of weapons” at his home in Newport. They included a stun gun, a .22 pistol, a machete, canisters of CS gas and bullets.

He also had convictions for possessing a prohibited weapon and ammunition and buying a converted firearm without a certificate.

His family said he had cracked “due to the traumatic break-up of his marriage and desperately needed medical attention”.