Armed police patrol London after teen shootings

LONDON, Feb 17 (Reuters) Armed police stepped up patrols in south London today after three teenagers were shot dead in less than a fortnight, fuelling public concern over gun crime and youth gangs.

Scotland Yard said three people were arrested overnight during searches of suspicious vehicles, although none was linked to the shootings.

Two men were held on suspicion of driving a lost or stolen car and another was detained over suspected drug possession, a police spokesman said.

In Manchester, an 18-year-old was shot in the back late yesterday. He was taken to hospital where his injuries were not said to be life threatening.

The fatal shootings of three youths in south London have provoked a huge political response and soul-searching amid fears they reflect a general malaise in British society.

Prime Minister Tony Blair called the murders ''horrific, shocking and ... tragic beyond belief''.

But he rejected comments from opposition Conservative leader David Cameron who said they showed society was ''quite broken''.

''This tragedy is not a metaphor for the state of British society, still less for the state of British youth today, the huge majority of whom, including in this part of London, are responsible, law-abiding people,'' Blair said.

The latest victim was Billy Cox, 15, who was found dying by his 13-year-old sister after being shot on Wednesday at their home in Clapham, a mixed area of expensive townhouses and sprawling housing estates.

That murder followed the shooting of schoolboy Michael Dosunmu, 15, in his bedroom in Peckham on February. 6. Days earlier, James Smartt-Ford, 16, was gunned down a few miles away at Streatham ice rink.

Labour's Kate Hoey, MP for Vauxhall, said the violence was drug-related.

''It's still rife on many, many of our estates,'' she told BBC radio. ''The police do take greater action perhaps than they did some years ago in Lambeth, but it's still not always possible to get people.'' Home Secretary John Reid said the government would consider strengthening laws to target gun crime.

Cox's father Tommy, a builder, said his son was ''not perfect, but dearly loved''. He pleaded with the community to get behind the police to catch his son's killers.

REUTERS SP PM1607