Search: supermarket Kent woman body
Police are waiting to question a man shot by officers during a stand-off in a supermarket hours before a woman's body was found at a guest house.
The 32 year old - named in reports as Lithuanian migrant Tomas Uptas - was hit in the arm in Morrisons in the Wincheap area of Canterbury, Kent, on Thursday night following reports of an armed man inside.
Hours later the body of a woman was found at the Ambassador Guest House in Victoria Road in the city.
Kent Police are linking the shooting and the discovery of the woman's corpse. The suspect remains under arrest in hospital as police waited to question him. Police are not confirming the identities of those involved at this stage, nor the injuries sustained by the dead woman.
Guest house landlord Kulvinder Singh Dosanjh, 55, said she was eastern European and had previously lived in a first-floor bedsit with her husband and they had a daughter. Customers at the supermarket reported seeing the unkempt man carrying a handgun under the sleeve of his coat in the beer and wine aisle before armed units arrived.
One loud shot was heard to ring out, prompting frantic staff to evacuate customers as around 60 people shopped. It was believed he was shot by an officer after refusing to obey orders to put the weapon down.
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One shopper described the moment police shot the man. Cleaner Pamela Elvidge, 58, said she saw a man who appeared intoxicated carrying a handgun. She said: "I thought it was a toy gun because you don't expect someone to be walking round carrying a real gun in a supermarket. The gunman just said, 'Move along, move along'. He was scruffy and was wearing an anorak."
Ms Elvidge, who was with her taxi driver partner Harry Bienkowski, 58, added: "We went to pay for our shopping and then went to the cigarette aisle and there was this almighty gunshot sound, and then the staff all told us to get out of the shop.
"There were about 50 to 60 people in there at the time, not many, which was just as well really as it was a pretty frightening experience to go through. As we waited, we saw someone being brought out on a stretcher but I couldn't say whether it was a man or a woman as it was dark."
No-one else was injured at the supermarket and a weapon, revealed to be a Power Line 15XTCO2 BB handgun, was recovered from the scene. Anyone with information is asked to call police in Kent on 01622 690690 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
