2 Shot Outside Ministry Of Sound's London Headquarters

Two security staff were shot and wounded outside Ministry's Elephant & Castle home last weekend in the latest violent incident connected to the troubled UK garage scene. "The shooting occurred after security staff intervened in an altercation at the club involving a female member of the bar staff," a Metropolitan Police spokesman told the Standard. "No arrests have been made. We have interviewed witnesses and we would urge anyone with information to come forwards." A male and female security guard were both shot in the leg following the row, and are currently in a stable condition in hospital.

The shooting incident could have serious repercussions for Ministry, given that their South London venue remains the flagship of their entire worldwide merchandising operations. The club's multimillionaire boss and former Eton Head Boy James Palumbo has talked in the past about standing up to armed local criminals when the club first opened in 1991, though he's unlikely to enjoy donning bullet proof vests again.

The shooting is also likely to have serious consequences for London's increasingly violent UK garage club scene, coming just two weeks after DJ XL Bass (real name Franklin Byam) was murdered in his home. An obituary on garage website Top Nite described the killing as 'brutal'.

"Frank was one of the most gentle men in the world, you could ever wish to know," they said. "We cannot begin to understand how or why this has happened."

Both incidents reflect a massive general increase in gun crime in London, which has seen gangsters killing each other at the rate of one per day in recent months. According to the Standard the problem is getting worse, with teenage assassins increasingly being hired to carry out contract killings for older villains. So Solid star Neutrino, who himself was shot and wounded outside a night club several months ago, is resigned to the new levels of violence, he told NME this week.

"It's kinda' like everyday life," he explained. "Where I come from that's how it is, man. It's proper deep now; guys shooting at police and someone getting shot, everything like that. It's not a nice life to live but we live in that life, kind of."
http://www.ministryofsound.com
http://www.topnite.com/xlbass.asp (DJ X L Bass)

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