Slaughter in the Lake District: Taxi driver Derrick Bird's first victim was his twin brother

A forensics team inspects a taxi in Coach Road, Whitehaven

Killed in cold blood: Father-of-two Garry Purdham was trimming a hedge when Bird gunned him down from point-blank range

Cumbria Police handout of a map identifying the roads on which Derrick Bird travelled during his shooting spree that left a dozen people dead.Victims: Bird struck across Cumbria leaving 11 dead in a deadly killing spree

A forensics team inspects a taxi in Coach Road, Whitehaven

Rampage: Derrick Bird killed 12 people on his shooting spree through Cumbria, including his twin brother

A trivial row over rivals stealing fares is believed to have sparked a taxi driver's horrific killing spree which left 13 dead yesterday.

After a heated argument on Tuesday night, Derrick Bird is said to have stormed off saying: 'There's going to be a rampage tomorrow.'

Bird, 52, awoke next morning to commit the worst massacre in Britain since Dunblane in 1996.

After shooting dead his twin brother, a solicitor and a taxi driver, he calmly unleashed carnage across the area to the west of the Lake District over the following three hours.


Police officers gather close to the site near the village of Boot, where Bird's body was found

There were at least 30 scenes where Derrick Bird is thought to have opened fire as he went on his rampage, including at this car, covered by police, in Seascale, Cumbria

Scenes of horror: Police were called in to stand guard over bodies at the shooting sites, like this one in Egremont

Forensic officers examine a car containing a body near Seascale after 52-year-old grandfather Derrick Bird's rampage yesterday

Easy target: Garry Purdham, pictured with his son Flynn, was killed as he worked on a farm

Tributes to taxi driver Darren Rewcastle at the scene of his death in Whitehaven

With a shotgun and high-powered rifle pointing from the window of his Citroen Picasso taxi he went on a 20-mile terror drive, killing another nine at random before shooting himself.

A further 25 were injured with eight still in hospital last night, three of them in a critical condition.

The tiny Cumbrian police force was so overwhelmed that bodies were still lying in the streets seven hours after the killings.

Last night the Queen followed Prime Minister David Cameron in expressing her 'heartfelt sympathy' to the grieving.

'I was deeply shocked by the appalling news from Cumbria,' she said.

'In asking you to pass my deepest and most heartfelt sympathy to the families of all those who were killed or injured, and to the injured themselves, I am sure I share in the grief and horror of the whole country.'

Bird had been suffering financial problems, compounded by what he saw as rivals 'touting' unfairly for fares in Whitehaven.

'I called over to him to say I'd drive him home and he replied: 'No, I'm going to sort this out.'

'I'm not surprised he's lost it over this because it's been going on for months and he's been under a lot of financial pressure as a result.'

After Tuesday night's row at the taxi rank, Bird is understood to have gone home and threatened to take his gun and shoot someone, only to be stopped by a friend.

Sources say he then went to a local hospital in a furious mood and asked for treatment from staff before being turned away.
Police are trying to piece together his exact movements that followed. It appears he began his rampage close to home, shooting his twin brother, David, who lived nearby in the village of Frizington.
He then lay in wait at his home for solicitor Kevin Commons, 60, who had made an appointment to visit him, and blasted him in the face.

He drove to Whitehaven to take deadly revenge on fellow taxi driver Darren Rewcastle outside the A2B taxi rank where he worked.

Mr Rewcastle was seen by Bird as one of the worst offenders for stealing fares.

Witness Alan Hannah described how he fled out of Whitehaven after he saw the gunman leaning out of a car window. 'I was waiting at a red light and looked around the corner. I saw a man with a shotgun at the window.

'I just went through the red light and got the hell out of Whitehaven.'

In the carnage that ensued, Cumbria Police and emergency services were so overloaded with 999 calls that they had to call in Lancashire colleagues to help.

As Bird disappeared over a moorland road, police warned locals to stay in their homes and lock their doors.

Among the victims was farmer Garry Purdham, shot dead at point blank range as he worked on his farm with his uncle in the village of Gosforth.

In Seascale, a Betterware catalogue distributor, Jane Robinson, 66, was beckoned over by the killer who blasted her in the face.

GP Barry Walker, who dealt with victims in Seascale, said the injuries were like nothing he had ever seen.

'I'm just amazed by the deliberateness of the shotgun injuries to people's faces and the callousness of shooting people in the street. These were just indiscriminate killings. There was blood flowing in the streets.'
Bird ended his killing spree after he drove south to the remote village of Boot. There he crashed his car and wandered off to the scenic moorland and woods where he shot himself.

Last night police said they were keeping an completely open mind over the motive but were examining 30 different crime scenes, bagging and labelling items of evidence.

It is understood that Bird held a firearms licence for 20 years, Cumbria Police said.

Last night the reverberations from the shooting were felt across the UK and questions will be asked exactly how, after tighter legislation and security, such atrocities can be prevented in the future.