Shot PCs: Police Investigate 'Family Feud'

Greater Manchester Police have said a 'family feud' forms part of their investigation into the shooting of two PCs on Tuesday.

But at a press conference Assistant Chief Constable Garry Shewan played down suggestions of gang warfare.

He said: "We have two feuding criminal families and we need to investigate the role that feud took in determining the outcome that we've seen in the last six months.

"But I wouldn't portray this as gang warfare on the streets of Manchester. This is a feud between two criminal families and it is being investigated as part of the investigation into the shocking events on Tuesday.

"To portray this as 'we're in the middle of a gang war' would be to overestimate what we've got here."

Mr Shewan also revealed police had issued a number of 'threat to life' notices since the death of David Short who was killed in a gun and grenade attack at his home in Manchester in August.

But he warned against jumping to conclusions regarding the number of notices issued as they were simply the start of a process to allow police to assess the seriousness of the threat.

"Since August 10 and the murder of David Short, Greater Manchester Police have been working closely with the community and intelligence officers," he said.

"We issued a number of 'threat to life' notices to individuals associated with this investigation and with the feud we've been investigating.

"A threat to life notice is the beginning of a conversation about how best to understand the level of threat.

"To read anything into the number of threat to life notices would be meaningless as you have to understand the start of those conversations".

Police had earlier warned  there may be more grenades in the area where two policewomen were shot dead.

Greater Manchester Chief Constable Sir Peter Fahy, said it was not clear whether there are more explosive devices at the scene where PCs Nicola Hughes and Fiona Bone were attacked on Tuesday.

The pair were shot dead after going to an empty council house in Abbey Gardens in Hattersley to investigate an apparently routine burglary.

Police have confirmed that a gun has been recovered. It has also emerged that one of the officers' tasers was found on the ground at the scene.

Witnesses reported that a number of shots had been fired and a grenade thrown after the officers arrived.

Sir Peter said the area was still cordoned off and a "threat" to officers remained.

"We are not confident that we have recovered all the grenades, we don't know for certain, so we've made it clear to our officers that the threat is still there. I would want that to be the message," he told a news conference.

Detectives have been trying to piece together the final moments of the dead officers, with forensic teams scouring the area where they were killed for clues.

Home Secretary Theresa May visited Greater Manchester Police headquarters for a two-hour briefing by senior officers conducting the investigation into the deaths.

She described the killings as "savage acts of pure brutality" but repeated that Government policy was that police should not be routinely armed.

Thousands of tributes poured in for the pair on Wednesday, including from the Queen, and the force held a minute's silence in their memory at 11am, almost precisely 24 hours after the attack.

Dale Cregan, 29, is still being questioned over the deaths of the two police officers, and in connection with the murders of Mr Short and his son Mark Short who died earlier this year.

A second man was detained in Hattersley on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder on Wednesday. He has been named as 28-year-old Stephen Garvey.

It has also emerged Cregan was held at gun point after walking into a police station.

Counter staff hit a panic button then asked him to go back outside Hyde police station in Greater Manchester, where he was confronted by armed officers who had been scrambled to the scene.

He arrived at the station in a blue BMW around an hour after the officers had been attacked.

PC Bone's family have issued a statement paying tribute to "a wonderful daughter, sister, partner and parent".