Police hunt doctor after nurse shot dead

POLICE hunting a hospital doctor who went on the run after his girlfriend was shot in a pub car park last night arrested a man in the Lennoxtown area of Glasgow.

Thomas Shanks, 47, was wanted for questioning about the killing of Vicky Fletcher, a nurse, who was attacked in Castleford, West Yorkshire, on Thursday by a gunman.

The doctor - who was awarded a medal for an act of heroism while serving with the SAS during the 1970s guerrilla war in Yemen, according to a former member of the unit - worked at the same hospital as Ms Fletcher, 21, with whom he was described as having a tempestuous relationship.

Police closed a school where Dr Shanks's ex-wife, Julie, works, and took the woman and her daughter into police protection.

Dr Shanks phoned his former wife on Thursday. He and Ms Fletcher worked at Pontefract General Infirmary, where the nurse died of wounds to her back, arms and legs early yesterday.

She was with friends in Castlefields pub before the attack. Stephen Thackray, the pub manager, said she saw the gunman's face at the window and went out to see him.

"Shots were firing everywhere," he said. "The firing went on, then we saw the man casually walk back to his car, get into it and calmly drive away.

"We brought out as many bar towels as I could get and just tried to stop the bleeding; there was nothing else we could do but wait for the ambulance."

Ms Fletcher, trying to flee, had scaled metal railings and was heading back to the pub entrance when the man fired a second burst, which left her dying on the ground.

Pub bloodbath, page 5