Soldier from Deepcut Barracks shot dead

A soldier from the Deepcut training barracks, where four young recruits have been found dead from bullet wounds, has been shot dead.

Mario O'Brien Clarke, 25, a private who was halfway through his training, was killed at a block of flats in east London on Boxing Day.

The deaths of four soldiers at the barracks, where there have been allegations of bullying, are being investigated.

Scotland Yard said yesterday that at this stage there was nothing to suggest the murder was linked to Pte Clarke's training at the camp near Frimley in Surrey.

Officers from the Metropolitan Police's Trident murder squad, which investigates black-on-black shootings, usually linked to drug dealing, are running the inquiry in London. Police were called at about 5pm after reports of a shooting at Woolpack House flats in Clapton. Officers found Pte Clarke dead with a single gunshot wound, the latest in a series of murders in the area.

Inquiries are continuing at Deepcut Barracks into the deaths of four of Pte Clarke's comrades. Inquests have recorded one death as a suicide with open verdicts in two of the other cases. An inquest has yet to be held into the fourth death. This month an independent forensic consultant concluded in a preliminary report that two of the four soldiers could not have shot themselves. Relatives are calling for a full public inquiry.