Armed police in "gun crime hot spots"

LONDON, Feb 16 (Reuters) Armed police are to patrol parts of south London where three teenage boys have been shot dead in the past 12 days.

A special temporary task force is to be set up to help investigate those crimes and two other murders, police said yesterday.

The latest shooting saw a 15-year-old boy, Billy Cox, murdered in his home in Lambeth on Wednesday.

The new measures are to be introduced following a special meeting called by Metropolitan Police chief Ian Blair and attended by senior colleagues from Scotland Yard's Specialist Crime Directorate and Territorial Policing unit.

Commander Cressida Dick of the Met Police said after the meeting that armed police would be going around ''gun crime hot spots'' in Lambeth and Peckham in police vehicles.

Suspicious cars would be checked in the two south London areas as part of ''more covert operations'', she told the BBC.

But she added: ''you will not see officers with guns routinely around south London'' and insisted that overall gun crime figures were down.

Shortly after the meeting it was announced an arrest had been made in connection with the murder of another 15-year-old boy in his home in Peckham.

Michael Dosunmu was shot dead in his bed on Feb. 6 in what police suspect was a case of mistaken identity.

Four men already being held in connection with the case are on bail to appear in court next month.

Cox, who was of mixed white and Thai parentage, was likely to have known his killers, media reports said, as there was no sign of a forced entry.

His was the third fatal shooting in the area. Earlier in the month, James Smartt-Ford, 16, was gunned down at Streatham ice rink.

Home Secretary John Reid is also to meet with MPs from south London to discuss the wider issues surrounding ''guns, gangs and knives.'' Reuters AD VP0530