A motorcyclist was killed in a drive-by shooting on a busy motorway yesterday after he left one of the biggest bike festivals in Europe.

The man, reportedly a member of the notorious Hell’s Angels gang, died at the scene after he was shot in front of weekend motorists. Police immediately ruled out a road-rage attack and said that gang links were a “strong line of inquiry”.

The victim, believed to be in his 30s, was shot after attending the Bulldog Bash, a biker event held at the nearby Long Marston airfield near Stratford-upon-Avon, which attracted 25,000 motorcycle fanatics.

Air ambulance crews treated the unidentified man at the site of the incident, between junctions 12 and 13 of the M40 in Warwickshire, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

The drama resulted in huge disruptions to motorists, who were caught in gridlock for hours when both carriage-ways of the motorway in Warwickshire were closed between junctions 14 and 12 southbound and between junctions 10 and 13 northbound.

With ten-mile tailbacks in both directions, police and the Red Cross brought food and water to drivers who were stuck in the cordoned-off area. Police said that the motorway was unlikely to reopen until this morning.

Motorists on the scene tried to administer first aid to the man. Paul Roberts, from Worthing, said: “One lady in a BMW took a first-aid kit to the man, who was lying on his front . . . it was very noticeable that the man was very still and not wearing any shoes.” Police launched a murder hunt and were investigating whether the biker had been targeted.

The shooting echoed a strikingly similar incident six years ago when three bikers were shot at on the M40 as they returned from the Bulldog Bash. One man was hit in the right leg in what police at the time said was an indiscriminate attack.

The event, organised and run by the Hell’s Angels, is billed as the safest bike show of the year. It featured drag racing, a custom bike show and rock acts including Status Quo and The Damned. One of its organisers, known as Bilbo, said that the victim was a Hell’s Angel member but denied that the shooting had any links to gang rivalry or in-fighting. Bilbo, a member of the Hell’s Angels for more than 30 years, said: “I knew the lad and you couldn’t wish to meet a better person. We’re used to deaths, as bikers. People die in accidents but we don’t expect someone to get shot. This is murder, plain and simple, and we have got no idea why this has happened.”

He said that the event had been trouble-free before the shooting, except for an incident over a mobile phone that was lost but later returned. Police said that there did not seem to be any trouble at the gathering and were not linking the murder to the event. The victim was travelling from the show with two friends.

Investigators said that they were searching for an older model of a green Rover, probably a 620, that may have been close to the motorcycles at the time of the shooting. Detective Superintendent Ken Lawrence, of Warwickshire Police, said: “We want to know if any witnesses travelling on the motorway between 2.30-2.45pm were aware of a green Rover car that acted in any way unusual or strange. One or two witness accounts have mentioned this car being close to the motorcycles at the time that something clearly happened.”


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article2246589.ece