A MAN found in Islington with a gunshot wound to his back may have accidentally shot himself on his way to committing a robbery, the Evening Standard reports.

Yesterday the Daily Mail reported that the victim had been "gunned down" in a drive-by shooting, but a new report today suggests the victim may in fact have injured himself when the gun he had in his backpack went off while he was riding a moped. A man riding another scooter is believed to have stopped and picked up the weapon after it went off.

Detectives now believe that the two men may have been on their way to commit a robbery, says the Standard.

Sumaira Naeem, a woman who works in a dry cleaner on Essex Road, where the incident took place, said that the victim walked into her shop to ask her for help after he had been shot.

"He showed me a hole in his back but there wasn't a lot of blood everywhere like you would think. He was using very bad language about some other person, and I asked him to stop... I asked him to sit down and phoned 999, then a few minutes into the conversation he grabbed the phone off me and started begging the ambulance to come quickly."

The incident came just days after an 18-year-old man almost lost his hand in an axe attack two streets away from the shooting, but police "played down" suggestions that the events were linked.

Councillor Paul Convery, Islington council's cabinet member for community safety, told the Standard: "Islington is a safe borough, and we're determined to keep it that way. However, two recent incidents have caused a considerable amount of public unease... We work closely with Islington police and are meeting with the borough commander to agree further action against suspected criminals in the borough."