Nightclubs shut down in wake of shootings
TWO 24-hour nightclubs face closure after a weekend of gun violence saw one man badly injured and another charged with attempted murder.
Ghost, in Farringdon Road, Farringdon, has been temporarily shut down after a man in his 20s was shot nearby following a fight that broke out inside the club at around 3.30am on Sunday.
The injured man had already left the scene when police arrived but was later found in a south London hospital with a gunshot wound in his lower back. He is now in a stable condition.
In a separate incident, a pillion rider on a motorcycle opened fire on a group of revellers outside Sosho nightclub, in Tabernacle Street, off City Road, Finsbury, at around 5am on Monday. No one was injured but the club has been temporarily shut down on Sundays. Police say the two shootings are not linked.
Clerkenwell ward councillor George Allan believes the future of Ghost - which took over former Wetherspoon pub The Printworks in January - is "doubtful".
He said: "Police were called out four separate times to Ghost that night. My understanding is that this was an R&B night. These nights are notorious for attracting a clientele that seems to want to shoot each other." Ghost and Sosho have 24-hour licences and were open until 6am on the nights of the respective shootings.
The temporary shutdowns were imposed after Islington Council summoned an emergency meeting on Monday at the request of police.
In the next 28 days, the clubs will be hauled before a full Islington Council review panel, where they could be shut for good, fined or taken to court. Officers from the Metropolitan Police's Operation Trident, which deals with so-called "black on black" gun crime, are investigating both shootings. No arrests have been made following the incident at Ghost.
A spokesman for Sosho said: "We have never had trouble like this in a decade of business. We offered to close on Sunday nights and we will keep it closed until further notice. We normally have an older crowd that doesn't get into fights. This was outside our premises."
Ghost was unavailable for comment.
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