Man dies after school ambush

Parents rushed back to take children home after the killing

A man has been shot dead as children arrived for classes at a primary school on the outskirts of Belfast.

The incident took place in the Derriaghy area on the outskirts of south Belfast on Thursday.

The shooting happened in the driveway of Oakwood Integrated Primary School shortly before 0900 BST.

The dead man was named locally as Kevin McAlorum.

He is understood to have left a child at the school and was driving out of the grounds when a white van rammed his blue Audi car.

Two men in the van jumped out and shot the man several times in his car.

They then ran and got into a car waiting outside the grounds. Police believe a Nissan Almera, found abandoned a quarter of a mile away on the Stewartstown Road, was the getaway vehicle used by the killers.

The police officer leading the investigation, Det Supt Roy McComb, said they were still trying to establish a motive for the shooting.

"Once again the streets of Belfast are covered with the blood of an innocent man," he added.

"No matter who this man was, no-one had the right to take his life."

Det Supt McComb: Still looking for a motive for shooting

He appealed for witnesses who saw what happened at the school or who saw the getaway car to contact his detectives.

The police say they don't think any children witnessed the shooting, although some parents who had dropped off their children for school, did see what happened.

One pupil told a BBC reporter the children in her class got under their desks when they heard the shots.

The principal of the school, Olwin Frost, said she heard the gunfire.

"There were a lot of parents and they were the last group of children coming in before school started, so quite a few people were very stressed by what they saw and heard.

"We tried very hard to keep everybody calm.

"Doors were locked - we have contingencies for difficult circumstances, so the children were well protected. The parents have been called and they are being invited to come and pick up their children at the back gate of the school."

Pupils and staff at the school have been offered counselling.

'Loud series of bangs'

Reverend John Budd, whose wife is a classroom assistant at the school, said he understood the man was shot after leaving a child to Oakwood.

"I spoke to my wife at about ten past nine and she told me something had happened. At that stage she didn't really know," he said.

People were panicked and shocked - you could see it in their faces and their demeanours Roisin Marshall Parent

"The school is really emptied of children. Everything is winding down and the police are really finding out what is what.

"The mood among the staff is one of shock. It has come completely out of the blue - it is not the type of thing one expects to happen."

One parent, Roisin Marshall, said she heard a loud series of bangs.

"People just shouted: 'Get down' - then there was that type of eery silence when something happens which is a bit of a shock.

The killers' getaway car was burned out

"Our main concern was the children and to get the gates to the main church closed to protect the children.

"People were panicked and shocked - you could see it in their faces and their demeanour."

PSNI Chief Constable Hugh Orde distanced the murder, and that of a woman in north Belfast, from the feud between loyalist paramilitaries.

"We have had two murders, neither of which we would link to the loyalist feud which appears to have quietened down,

"They are both being looked at by our new Crime Operations Department. The first few hours, which are crucial, have been thoroughly taken care of."

Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy condemned the murder at the school.

Oakwood Integrated Primary say the school will be closed on Friday but will reopen again as usual on Monday.