SHOCKED neighbours in the quiet Tang Hall cul-de-sac where the killing took place were today struggling to come to terms with what had happened right on their doorstep.

Most of the residents of Welborn Close - a street of flats and bungalows - are elderly and many watched in disbelief as police officers moved in and sealed off half the street yesterday afternoon.

But as the search for vital clues started, a picture began to build up of a council-owned bungalow that was being used not as an old person's home, but as a meeting place for gangs of noisy youths.

Nobody seemed to have heard any shouting or sounds of violence coming from the bungalow, but some said loud music had been playing during the afternoon.

Many neighbours were too scared to identify themselves and said they would be keeping their doors locked.

One of them, a woman who lives very close to the murder scene, said a group of young people had been living in the bungalow since January.

She said: "They should never have been allowed to live there. There were always lots of them coming and going out all the time. It got so bad that we complained to the council about it.

"There's been lots of noise going on through the night, of cars pulling up and doors banging.

"It's shocking, because up until a few weeks ago this place was as quiet as a church mouse."

Pensioner Brian Stone said: "I used to live in Foxwood and it's been a lot quieter here - you just don't expect something like this on your own doorstep.

"I came in about 3pm and there was an ambulance in front of me with its blue lights on.

"A couple of police cars came behind and the next thing, the whole investigation team arrived."

As the news spread quickly around Tang Hall, and people returned home from work and school, groups of stunned parents and children gathered together in groups in Welborn Close and nearby Alcuin Avenue.

Mum-of-two Mrs Paula Webb, from Alcuin Avenue, said: "It does shock you when something like this happens.

"I cannot remember anything like this happening round here before."

Like many others her friend, another mum aged 38, said she was very frightened by the attack.

"Tang Hall's getting worse, it's getting worse than Clifton," she said.

"Kids are always going round in gangs and beating each other up."

Evening Press paper boy 14-year-old Ashley Cook, also from Alcuin Avenue, and one of the many teenagers watching the unfolding drama, said: "I deliver papers down Welborn Close and when I got down there the police said I couldn't go any further and delivered them for me."

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