Two killed in shooting at Harvey Nichols

Published on Wednesday 14 September 2005 01:35

A FORMER security guard shot a girl dead and turned the gun on himself in a double tragedy at Harvey Nichols in London's Knightsbridge last night.

The man, aged about 30, is understood to have killed the younger woman, an employee on a cosmetics counter on the exclusive store's ground floor.

Police said both were pronounced dead at the scene and that they were not looking for anyone else over the incident, which happened at about 7:45pm.

"We are trying to ascertain the circumstances, but are not currently seeking anyone else in connection with the incident," a police spokesman said. "We are currently making inquiries to establish their identities. Next of kin have yet to be informed."

Harvey Nichols, which is open until 8pm on weekdays, was operating as usual at the time - as was its Fifth Floor cocktail bar.

A spokesman for the store confirmed two people were dead, but refused to discuss the matter further.

A 26-year-old woman working in the store when the shooting happened said: "It was about 7:45pm. I was looking at my watch, ready to go home, then bang, bang, bang - four gunshots downstairs. A girl got shot. There were shoppers still walking around, totally unaware.

"There was no announcement. We just heard people screaming and ran. I thought that it wasn't just a bottle dropping on the floor; it's something more than that. There weren't many shoppers around, so that was pretty lucky."

Shopper Charlotte O'Leary said she had been told that a former security guard had shot a beauty counter worker before turning the gun on himself.

"The waitress we spoke to apparently had been informed by police and they said it was an ex-security guard who had walked into Harvey Nichols, shot dead one of the girls behind the make-up counter and then shot himself," she said.

She added that there was no feeling of panic at the store, where cordons were in place.

The relationship of the gunman and his victim was not immediately clear, although an emergency worker at the scene said the man was a former employee of the store.

Natasha Horsey, 20, a student at Bristol University, had been having dinner in the restaurant and said she had no idea what had happened. "My friend came to join us at 8 o'clock and she was not allowed upstairs, so I went down to get her," she said. "We were in the middle of supper. The waiters just said police are coming up and so we had to evacuate."

A spokeswoman for London Ambulance Service said: "We were called to reports of a shooting.

We treated two patients who had been shot, one male and one female. Unfortunately, both suffered cardiac arrests and died."