ANOTHER man was shot dead this weekend as armed gangs across the capital continued to show their contempt for the law.

The man was killed in east London as armed police patrolled the southern boroughs of the city where three teenagers have been shot dead in the past week.

The latest murder took place in the early hours of yesterday morning in Hackney, east London.

Gunmen shot a 28-year-old man in his car before firing at him again as he tried to escape.

A witness reported seeing three black men walking "confidently" away from their victim as he lay dying.

Gabriel Ajayi, 50, whose flat overlooks the scene, was woken by three gunshots shortly before 5.30am.

He said: "I looked out and saw a man lying on the ground on the road and I saw three guys running away. All of a sudden they came back and shot him twice again at close range."

The man was rushed to hospital but pronounced dead just before 6am.

The incident is being investigated by detectives from Operation Trident, the Metropolitan Police's black-on-black gun crime unit.

Police said the latest shooting was not being linked to the earlier murders in south London.

The death comes days after three teenagers were killed in south London, including 15-year-old Billy Cox.

Billy was allegedly a member of the Clap Town Kids, a Clapham gang whose rivals include the PDC Crew in Brixton and the Blood Set in Peckham.

Billy's death followed the fatal shootings of James Smartt-Ford, 16 at Streatham ice rink, and Michael Dosunmu, 15, in his Peckham bedroom.

In Manchester's Moss Side, an 18-year-old man was shot in the back on Friday night while standing with friends outside a youth club. Later that night two men, aged 19 and 27, were shot as they sat in their car at traffic lights elsewhere in the city. Their injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.

Police are open to the suggestion that the Manchester shootings may have been inspired in part by the shootings of three youths in south London.

This weekend, extra armed police were on the streets of the UK capital, as Scotland Yard's Operation Neon focused on the south London boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark.

Meanwhile, home secretary John Reid announced he is to consider introducing tougher sentences to tackle gun crime and gang culture.

Tony Blair described the deaths of the three teenagers in south London as "horrific, shocking and tragic beyond belief".

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