Birkenhead shooting: Two men injured in drive-by attack Published duration 25 July 2019

image copyright Merseyside Police image caption The motorbikes were seen heading along Argyle Street towards Hamilton Square, Merseyside Police said

Two men have been injured in a drive-by shooting outside a pub.

Police believe two motorbikes approached a Vauxhall Astra estate in Argyle Street, Birkenhead at about 00:11 BST when the shots were fired.

The pillion passenger on one of the bikes fired a gun into the car before riding off, Merseyside Police said.

The driver and the front-seat passenger in the car both sustained gunshot injuries, which are not thought to be life threatening.

A third person, who was in the rear of the car, was uninjured.

Each motorbike had two men on board but the gunshots came from one pillion passenger, officers said.

'Incomprehensible and sickening'

The victims, both from Birkenhead, were treated by ambulance crews in nearby Rodney Street after the car driver left the scene of the shooting, close to a Wetherspoons pub.

The 26-year-old driver was shot in the shoulder, while a 25-year-old passenger sustained injuries to his arm.

Crime scene investigators are carrying out forensic examinations of the locations involved and the car.

Det Insp Paul Speight said: "There were a large number of people in Wetherspoons and the Argyle Street area and the actions of the offenders are utterly incomprehensible and sickening.

"We need to find the people on that motorbike as a matter of urgency.

"We have already spoken to a number of witnesses who were at the pub and in Market Street at the time of the attack.

"The motorbikes were last seen heading along Argyle Street towards Hamilton Square. If you think you saw these bikes in the lead up to the incident, or following the incident please let us know."

Earlier, a 26-year-old man was arrested after a gun was fired in Dingle, Liverpool.

Three people on two scrambler bikes were involved in the incident at the junction of Erin Close and Laxey Street at about 20:14, police said.

The arrested man, from Anfield, was on a bike which crashed into a car and is in hospital with a serious leg fracture.

Detectives said occupants of a white car removed the motorbike after the crash but it was found later in an alleyway off Park Road.