Man shot in back after phone robbery

A young man was shot in the back after being robbed of his mobile phone by a gang outside a 24-hour shop yesterday.

The mixed-race man, aged 19, who has not been named by police, was hit by a single shot outside a small supermarket in the Radford area of Nottingham at 3.45am. He staggered into the shop to raise the alarm.

Detective Inspector Paul Pollard said: "The victim has a punctured lung and surgeons have told us that trying to retrieve the bullet or pellet may do more harm than good."

He said the man appeared to have struck up a conversation with an Asian youth in the shop and the pair had then gone outside. Inspector Pollard said: "He has told us he was then attacked by a group of about nine youths. They took his mobile phone and then demanded money – he was trying to escape when he was hit in the back." He was taken to the Queen's Medical Centre in the city, where his condition was described as "stable."

Last month Brendan Law-rence, 16, was shot and killed in the St Ann's area of Nottingham. Police have offered a £10,000 reward for information leading to the capture and conviction of his killers.

Officers said they were not at this stage linking the two shootings, but were treating the latest incident as a "violent robbery".