Republican shot dead in front of pupils

A man was shot dead in front of children arriving at a mixed primary school in Belfast yesterday in what appeared to be a drugs-related killing.

Kevin McAlorum, was shot down after dropping a child at Oakwood school on the southern outskirts of the city. He was attacked after a van blocked his Audi car in what appeared to be a carefully planned ambush. A getaway car was found burned out in a nearby Catholic area.

McAlorum's killing may be linked to his republican past. A member of the Irish National Liberation Army, a small group particularly prone to lethal internal feuding, he was reputed to have killed INLA leader Gino Gallagher in 1996.

Six weeks after the Gallagher assassination, McAlorum's nine-year-old sister Barbara was killed in a retaliatory attack. McAlorum himself was jailed for having a gun during the feud.

* In another incident, the body of an Asian woman was discovered by police in the boot of a car in the north of the city. Two men of Asian origin are being questioned about her death.