'Last warning' shouts before man shot by police

Armed police were heard shouting at a man to "drop your weapon" in a "last warning" before he was shot following a double stabbing on Merseyside.

Merseyside Police were called to Tobruk Road, in Huyton's Bluebell Estate, at about 16:30 BST on Wednesday to reports a man and woman had been stabbed.

A woman living close to the scene of the shooting, who did not wish to be named, told the BBC she saw the victims of the stabbing emerge from a house "screaming" before a police officer told residents to get into their houses.

The witness said she heard a single loud bang and then a further series of what sounded like five or six gunshots.

On Thursday, Merseyside Police said a woman in her 50s remained in hospital in a stable condition after being stabbed in the back, arms and face, while a man in his 20s was treated for less serious knife injuries and discharged from hospital.

The shot man, who is in his 30s, was wounded in the abdomen and is in a serious but stable condition in hospital, the force said.

Detectives said they were not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident.

The witness told the BBC she was sitting in her front garden on Tobruk Road enjoying the sunshine when she noticed a police patrol car driving slowly along the road.

"I heard this scream, this fella screaming," she said.

"We ran down to the bottom of the path, me and my friend, and the lad who'd been stabbed came running out of the house holding his stomach and his neck, shouting he's stabbed me."

She said officers jumped from the police car and began treating the man, at which point a woman also emerged from the same house screaming that she had been stabbed.

The road was quickly filled with police officers who rushed to treat the victims, but after a short time residents were ordered back into their houses.

"We all got told 'get in your houses, get in your houses, firearms, firearms'," she said.

"We were all pushed into our homes so much so I had a stranger in my house, the police just pushed him into my house.

"I said he doesn't live here, she said 'I don't care get him in'."

The witness added: "So we went into the back garden to have a smoke, and I heard the police telling [the suspect] 'drop your weapon, drop your weapon, put the gun down get on your knees'."

The witness described hearing a single bang, before a short period of silence.

She said: "Then we heard the police again; 'put the weapon down, put the gun down, get on your knees, this is your last warning', then we heard bangs, it was either five or six."

Merseyside Police has referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), which is standard in cases where firearms officers discharge their weapons.

The force said it could not comment on whether the suspect had a gun at the time he was shot as the investigation had been handed over to the IOPC.

An IOPC spokesperson said it could not confirm further details while the investigation was in its initial stages.

Merseyside Police said it had placed a mobile police station on the Bluebell estate in Huyton, and added an increased police presence would be visible in the area.

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