Policemen are checking a body at the shooting site in Cumbria, northern England, June 2. Twelve people were killed and at least 25 others injured after a gunman carried out a series of shootings in Cumbria, northern England, local police confirmed on Wednesday. ©AFP

BEIJING, June 3 — Police are investigating why a gunman went on a shooting spree in northwest England Wednesday, leaving 12 dead in the worst incident of its kind in the UK for 14 years, Bloomberg News said Thursday.

The Cumbria Constabulary said more than 100 detectives are investigating the shooting.

The body of the gunman, named by police as local taxi driver Derrick Bird, 52, was found in a wooded area.

“We are still at a very early stage in our investigation and we are not able to really understand the motivation behind it or establish whether this was a premeditated or random attack,” said Stuart Hyde, Cumbria’s deputy chief constable, in a televised press conference.

This incident is the worst in the UK since 16 children and their teacher were killed at a school in Dunblane, Scotland, in 1996.

On Xinhua Web site: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-06/03/c_13330977.htm

Police stand guard at the shooting site in Cumbria, northern England, June 2. Twelve people were killed and at least 25 others injured after a gunman carried out a series of shootings in Cumbria, northern England, local police confirmed on Wednesday. ©AFP

BEIJING, June 3 — UK police said they were still investigating the motives behind the gunman who shot dead his twin brother and 11 other people in northwest England Wednesday, the Guardian reported Thursday.

“We are still at a very early stage in our investigation and we are not able to really understand the motivation behind it or establish whether this was a premeditated or random attack,” said Stuart Hyde, Cumbria’s deputy chief constable, in a televised press conference.

The gunman, Derrick Bird, 52, known to many as Birdy in Whitehaven, Cumbria, was a seemingly sociable, outgoing man who had just become a grandfather, the newspaper said.

Local residents said Bird was a self-employed driver and had been in the trade for 23 years.

According to his colleagues and neighbors, Bird had argued with friends on Whitehaven’s Duke Street taxi rank the evening before he began shooting. Two of his victims are believed to be his fellow cab drivers.

Another Whitehaven taxi driver told the newspaper that there had been a rise in tension at cab ranks in the town because of an increasing number of drivers and a decreasing number of jobs.

But most of those who knew him remembered Bird as a friendly, even-tempered man — the kind of neighbor with a ready smile who would stop for a chat, the newspaper said.

Michelle Haigh, the landlady of a local pub where Bird had been a regular customer, said the incident was “not in character with the Derrick Bird we know.”

“He was a nice guy, nothing out of the ordinary. He would come in to the pub, have a couple of pints, have a chat with his friend and go home,” Haigh was quoted by BBC as saying.

One man was quoted by BBC Radio as saying that Bird appeared to be a mild-mannered, content individual.

“I can’t see how this piece fits into his jigsaw. It’s just completely out of place,” he said. 

On Xinhua Web site: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-06/03/c_13331196.htm