Hell's Angel shot dead on motorway

The M40 in Warwickshire remained shut after the attack yesterday as the man rode home from a motorcycle festival.

The officer leading the murder hunt apologised for the inconvenience caused by the closure.

Detective Superintendent Ken Lawrence of Warwickshire Police said: “It’s our one and only chance to really examine the scene.”

He said detectives were also scouring CCTV footage from cameras monitoring the motorway and he appealed to any witnesses who may have information about the shooting to contact police.

The victim was a Hell’s Angel in his 30s who was gunned down after visiting the Bulldog Bash biker festival 20 miles away at the Long Marston airfield near Stratford.

Mr Lawrence said police were investigating the possibility that the victim, who has not yet been named, was not British but had lived in the UK for some time.

He also said detectives were examining a similar shooting involving bikers from the Bulldog Bash six years ago.

“There are similarities but that doesn’t mean necessarily that they are linked,” he said.

In the incident six years ago three bikers were shot at on the M40 as they returned from the Bulldog Bash.

The bikers, from Canada and France, were travelling in the inside lane towards Oxford when they were shot at from a car in the middle lane.

A 31-year-old man was hit in the right leg and taken to hospital for treatment.

Officers want to trace a green Rover 620 car seen travelling south on the M40 close to a group of motorcyclists at around the time of the incident. Police would like to speak to the driver and occupants of this car.

The victim was travelling south with two friends and air ambulance crews were called to treat the man at the scene of the incident between junctions 13 and 12 on the M40 shortly after 2.15pm yesterday.

The Bulldog Bash is billed at Europe’s number one biker party and attracts tens of thousands of motorcyclists and music fans from across Europe. This year Status Quo headlined the event.

Bulldog Bash organiser, 56-year-old Hell’s Angel “Bilbo”, told reporters: “I knew the lad and you couldn’t wish to meet a better person.”