200805081214 | Lawyer dies in London shootout

Lawyer dies in London shootout

London - A 32-year-old lawyer was killed in a shootout with police in London's plush Chelsea district in what was described by colleagues on Wednesday as an unexplained "tragedy".

The gun battle sparked a major security clampdown on Tuesday, with parts of the King's Road sealed off in an operation which ended when crack police commandos stormed the house where he was holed up. Divorce barrister Mark Saunders died after a tense five-hour standoff with police marksmen surrounding his £2.2m flat in upmarket Markham Square.

Colleagues at his employer, QEB Chambers, voiced shock at the news. "This is a personal tragedy. It is nothing to do with the chambers. Our thoughts are with his family," said one.

Saunders was educated at Christ Church College, Oxford, and had been a barrister since 1999.

Witnesses described how his girlfriend or former partner fled the property in tears shortly before the first shots rang out.

Neighbour Jane Winkworth, who lived below the gunman, said he opened fire while she was in the back garden. At least three bullets missed her as she ran inside to call police, she added.

Saunders - who unconfirmed reports suggested had served in the Iraq war - appeared calm and composed, shouting only "I can't hear you" at police officers as they tried to negotiate his surrender.

The standoff ended when officers from Scotland Yard's elite CO19 specialist firearms unit stormed his Georgian terrace house, using stun grenades before a final shootout in which the semi-naked gunman was fatally wounded.