Police hunt gunmen at Costa del Sol holiday resort

Tourists had to dive for cover when a gunman opened fire at a restaurant in the Costa del Sol resort of Puerto Banus.

Police were last night said to be hunting at least two people including a man who appeared to have used a sub-machine gun during the dramatic incident.

The moments leading up to the shooting showed two bare-chested men who looked like holidaymakers fleeing before the gunman, thought to have got out of a car an accomplice was driving before they made their getaway, appeared on the scene.

Local reports said three shots were heard ringing out.

The drama happened at around 6pm in the vicinity of the Cristamar shopping centre, home to shops, offices, and restaurants, in the heart of Puerto Banus, which at this time of the year is thronging with tourists from the UK and Ireland.

Unconfirmed reports say the getaway vehicle used in the shooting may be a BMW which was found gutted nearby.

Investigators are understood to be trying to determine whether it was set alight deliberately and caused a wildfire which emergency responders were called to put out around 7.30pm on Tuesday.

One unconfirmed local report said the vehicle was a BMW X3 with number plates registered to a motorbike.

Six British men were held at the start of February following the attempted murders of three Irishmen at a lake called Turtle Lake near Marbella in September last year.

One of the Irish targets, a 24-year-old, was shot in the leg. The other two were unharmed.

Police described the crime at the time as the work of a criminal gang specialising in ‘settling scores’.

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