A murder investigation has been launched after a 27-year-old man was shot dead in a Liverpool street on Sunday morning.

Armed officers were called to the Belle Vale area of the city at about 11.30am to reports that a man had been shot.

Merseyside police said paramedics treated the victim at the scene for critical injuries to the head and torso. The victim, who was standing close to a parked car on Cornwood Close when the shooting happened, was taken to hospital but was later pronounced dead.

Detectives said the assailant was believed to have been riding a pedal bike and fled the scene after the shooting.

One woman, who did not want to be named, said she had tried to resuscitate the man after hearing the gunshots.

She told the Press Association: “It was about 11.15am and I just heard four bangs. I wondered what it was so I went into the garden and saw him lying on the floor in the street. I did CPR. It’s hard seeing someone you know like that. He is a local lad and I know his family. He’s a nice lad.”

Det Ch Supt Natalie Perischine said: “The investigation into this shocking incident is in its very early stages, and we are keen to speak to anyone who may have information which could help us establish the full circumstances and find those responsible.”

Police said the shooter was described as being in his late 20s, of medium build, dressed in black with a hi-vis orange jacket.

Detectives were making door-to-door enquiries on Cornwood Close, about five miles east of Liverpool city centre, on Sunday afternoon as the hunt for the offender was launched.

Perischine said: “You may have seen or heard suspicious behaviour in Cornwood Close or nearby in Belle Vale, and any information, no matter how small you think it may be, could prove crucial as we seek to establish what happened and bring those responsible to justice.

“We share the community’s shock that this could happen in a residential street in broad daylight late on a Sunday morning. I want to reassure the public that gun crime will not be tolerated on the streets of Merseyside at any time of day, and that we will thoroughly investigate any information given to us so we can put anyone who carries guns on our streets behind bars.

“I appeal again to anyone who may have seen the incident itself, or someone making off on foot or on a pedal bike, to please get in touch.”

The fatal shooting took place less than mile from the street where a 16-year-old boy was stabbed to death three months ago.

Daniel Gee-Jamieson died from a single stab wound inflicted on Belle Vale Road on 4 July. A 17-year-old boy, who cannot be named, is in custody and due to go on trial in January charged with the teenager’s murder.

After the killing, Daniel’s family appealed for people to help the police to “stop any further children being killed by mindless knife crime”.