SHOTGUN SIEGE

Armed police wearing flak-jackets went to the scene and lined the waterfront at Upton-upon-Severn. They trained their guns on the door of the King's Head, as gunshots rang out repeatedly from inside.

Police blocked traffic from entering the town. Boats approaching on the Severn were turned back. People were ordered to stay inside their homes and ambulances were put on standby.

The drama began at 1.40pm yesterday when Tim Bayliss, said to be suffering from depression, walked into the King's Head and shouted: "Don't move or I'll shoot".

Customers leapt from their seats and ran as Bayliss waved his gun towards them.

Then he took a shoe off, sat on a chair, rested his toe on the trigger and aimed the gun towards his face.

Landlord Grahame Bunn's wife Clare was upstairs at the time. Mr Bunn crept back away from the bar, where Bayliss was sitting, and ordered his stocktaker David Thompson out of the pub. Then he ran upstairs to fetch Mrs Bunn. Together, they ran outside through a back door and called the police.

A shaken Mr Bunn said Bayliss had been a regular at the pub for five years.

"I think he's very depressed because he's just split up with his girlfriend and he's got diabetes," he said. "I was terrified. This sort of thing just doesn't happen here."

Armed police quickly arrived at the scene. By then, Bayliss was alone inside the pub, with everyone safely evacuated.

When a police negotiator shouted for Bayliss - thought to be in his 20s - to answer the pub's phone, Bayliss walked out of the pub door, pointing the shotgun into his mouth.

He crouched briefly by the pub A-board then walked back in again.

Soon afterwards, onlookers heard a shot ring out from the pub.

Bayliss, initially dressed in blue jeans, and later wearing navy shorts and barefoot, appeared five more times at the door, with the gun pointing at his mouth or throat.

Witnesses said they had heard a shot ring out from the pub every 10 minutes in a two-hour period.

One witness said Bayliss's father had been called to the scene to talk to him. Bayliss's distraught girlfriend was said to have arrived to speak to him, but was advised by police to stay away.

At 6.50pm Bayliss emerged from the pub once again, crouched behind a car and appeared to be talking to a policeman nearby. He later gave himself up unharmed.

Police spokesman Richard Bull said all members of the public had left the pub by the time the police arrived. A force negotiator was sent to the scene and traffic diversions were set up around the area.

Two large passenger boats were prevented from continuing their journeys to Upton-upon-Severn during the incident.

The Conway Castle was turned back shortly after leaving the quay at Tewkesbury, with 130 people

on board.

Melanie Davis, of Severn Leisure Cruises, said: "This whole area had been cordoned off by the police, so there was no way we could have unloaded 130 passengers."

The Oliver Cromwell, a simulated Mississippi steamer, had to moor near Severn Stoke.

David Walker, of Upton-based Mercia Inshore Search and Rescue, said: "We had just spent three hours getting the Oliver Cromwell off sandbanks at Clevelode and then we had to help them find temporary moorings."

'He came in with a gun and started pointing it'

ABOUT 50 people watched the dramatic events unfold.

Jane Holder, joint-proprietor of Cruisers Bar and Restaurant in Upton Marina, said she understood that Bayliss was diabetic and was gradually losing his eyesight.

"He's done this a few times, just never in public," she said. "It's a cry for help."

Customer Harvey Hardaway, of Clarence Road, Malvern, saw him arrive at the pub.

"I was just sat outside in the garden and I saw this car drive up with music blaring out.

The next thing I knew, this guy got out with a shotgun under his arm.

"I thought he was just pulling a prank. I'd just come in for a quiet drink and I can't believe what happened next."

Another of those enjoying a pint was Martin Airey, of Lytham, Lancashire, who had just moored his boat.

He spoke of his disbelief at the events: "I just went to the pub for a drink. The man came in with a shotgun and started pointing it around.

"I thought he was just playing. It was only when people started running out I realised it was serious."

Arthur Gardner, of nearby Ryall Meadow, said he'd come to see his friend Bill Hawkes at Bridge House coffee room.

"I saw the police and thought it was a bomb scare. I was quite shocked when I saw it going on. This is such a little town you don't get this kind of thing going on."

The gunman's sister-in-law, Dawn Bayliss, declined to comment when contacted by the Worcester News.

At the Plough Inn, next door to the King's Head, licensee Justin Lagar said he knew nothing about what had been going on, except that there had been three armed police outside the door.