Quote:A man is being treated for a gunshot wound after a 16-hour standoff with police in Luton. Police said the man discharged his weapon "and a police firearms officer may also have fired a shot".

Quote:Man treated for gunshot wound amid police standoff


Paramedics tend to man apparently armed with sawn-off shotgun in Luton park after eyewitnesses report a gunshot

Press Association
guardian.co.uk, Monday 24 January 2011 11.22 GMT

Police have cordoned off an area around Leagrave Common in Luton, Bedfordshire. Photograph: Arthur Turner / Alamy/Alamy
A man is being treated for a gunshot wound after a 16-hour standoff with police in Luton. Police said the man discharged his weapon "and a police firearms officer may also have fired a shot".

Armed police are negotiating with the gunman after he was stopped by officers while walking across a park last night. Police cordoned off an area around Leagrave Common after a stand-off started at 8.30pm.

Dozens of officers remained in place this morning, and a single gunshot was heard at about midday at the centre of the police operation.

A police spokeswoman said: "The man is still on the field. The ambulance service is still working. He is not dead." She said the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) would be informed in due course.

A witness said a man could be seen lying on the floor apparently holding a sawn-off shotgun to his head. "There was a gunshot. The man is now lying on the ground. He is surrounded by armed police and paramedics," he said.

Earlier, the witness said the man was sitting cross-legged on a football pitch close to a set of goalposts. He said the man was holding an object that looked like a shotgun to his chin, with the butt of the gun in his lap. The man was described as aged in his late 30s or early 40s.

Police said there was no danger to the public, although people were asked to stay away from the area.

Quote:Gunman Dies After 16-Hour Police Stand-Off

5:26pm UK, Monday January 24, 2011
Peter Sharp, Sky News correspondent

A man who apparently shot himself in a Luton park after a 16-hour stand-off has died - and police have confirmed one of their marksmen may have fired his weapon


The gunman is treated at the scene on Leagrave Common

Officers had been negotiating with the man in Leagrave Common since he was discovered with a firearm at 8.30pm on Sunday night.
Armed response officers traced the man to the park after a 999 call to report a man in Wauluds Bank Drive with a gun.
Witnesses, who believed the man had a sawn-off shotgun, reported hearing a shot at around midday and saw the man lying on the floor.
Bedfordshire Police have since confirmed the man has died.
The force has also confirmed one of the police marksmen involved in the operation may have fired his weapon.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission has been informed.
They have got an oxygen mask on him and a drip. An air ambulance has landed on the playing field nearby.
Eyewitness to the shooting
A police spokeswoman said: "He has discharged his weapon and it may be that one of the police officers has also discharged a weapon."
Armed officers carry Tasers, baton guns, an automatic pistol and a rifle and it is believed one of the weapons may have been discharged at around the same time as the shot was fired.
Efforts were made to resuscitate the man.
Speaking at the time, an eyewitness said: "There was a gunshot. The man is now lying on the ground. He is surrounded by armed police and paramedics."
Describing the scene, he continued: "They have got an oxygen mask on him and a drip. An air ambulance has landed on the playing field nearby."
The man, estimated to be in his late thirties or early fourties, was dressed in dark clothing and was sitting cross-legged on a football pitch when witnesses first saw him.
"There is a black man sitting near one of the goalposts with what would appear to be a shotgun pointing to his head," an eyewitness told reporters at the time.
"He has got the butt of the gun, if that is what it is, in his lap and the barrel underneath his chin."
Between 15 and 20 officers, including armed officers and specialist negotiators, worked through the night at the stand-off.