Five injured after shotgun fired at street party with 'hundreds' of revellers in Birmingham

Armed police were deployed to Dudley Road in Winson Green at around 1.45am on Monday morning, in response to calls reporting a firearms discharge.

One man was found with multiple pellet wounds to his legs while four others, two men and two women, also suffered minor pellet injuries.

The road has been sealed off today for forensic examination and West Midlands Police detectives are in the process of seizing and reviewing CCTV.

Officers understand a large crowd had gathered for a street party – where disorder broke out before the shooting.

Birmingham Police Chief Inspector Pervez Mohammed said: "This is a hugely reckless act, discharging a shotgun in a crowded space, and it is lucky no-one was seriously hurt.

"Our detectives have moved quickly to seize some potentially very significant CCTV and we'll be progressing that today to try and identify offenders.

"It also needs stressing that large gatherings like this during the Covid-19 health pandemic are completely unacceptable and dangerous.

"We understand there may have been in excess of 100 people gathered for this street party. They were causing concern among residents and major traffic disruption.

"Large gatherings are still banned because there is a risk of the virus spreading. If we have encountered any large gatherings we have been encouraging people to disperse – but we will enforce and issue fines if necessary."

Residents and businesses in the area had expressed their shock.

One resident, who lives in an apartment overlooking the road, said: "There were several hundred people here, we couldn't sleep there were so many people.

"Women were even dancing on cars, twerking, it was like a full on party. They had a barbecue and even a bouncy castle, it was surreal.

“It's not fair, if we want to go outside, we can't as we don't want to have to push past people when we need to social distance.

“I live with my wife and my child and I don’t want to put them in danger because people who don’t live here have decided to have a rave.

“It was outrageous. Our apartment looks over the road, he had to go to the back kitchen to try and get some sleep.”

A business owner who also witnessed the party, added: “There were so many people here, we have owned our business for years on this road and we have never seen anything like this before, even before coronavirus.

“It’s usually a busy road with all the takeaways, but nothing on this scale, the cars were still able to just move through, but you couldn’t walk down the pavements, it was heaving."

A spokesman for West Midlands Ambulance Service said: ""We were called by police at 1.59am to a shooting at the junction of Dudley Road and Winson Green Road. Two ambulances and two paramedic officers attended the scene.

"When crews arrived they were presented with three patients. We treated a man for injuries not believed to be serious and two women for minor injuries before taking them to hospital for further treatment."

Anyone with information is urged to call West Midlands Police on 101.