LIFE has become terrifyingly cheap in Nottingham, a city famous for the outlaw Robin Hood and now in the grip of a violent gangland crime culture.

After a spate of killings, the East Midlands town built on the prosperity of the surrounding coalfields, now has the unenviable reputation of being known as “assassination city”.

Paul Thomas, 34, became the latest victim when he was shot dead in a gangster-style murder as he left a public house last Thursday. Such is the scale of violence that it suffers twice as many shootings, relative to its population, as London.

Drug dealing is commonplace, guns are easily bought and sold, and witnesses to crime are intimidated into silence.

A report for Steve Green, the Chief Constable of Nottinghamshire, said that more than 40 per cent of murders in the area were “straightforward assassinations”. Between 1994 and 1999, the police investigated only two murder cases in which the victim had been shot, yet in the past two years there have been 13, most linked to the illegal drugs trade.

The growth of gun crime is highlighted by figures showing that in 2002 there were more investigations into shooting offences than in the previous seven years together.

Advisers from the Home Office police standards unit have worked with Mr Green to reform the force he took over four years ago.

Nottingham grew rich on its wool trade but in recent years it has been renowned for a booming night-time economy. With more than 300 pubs and clubs, there are rich pickings for criminals involved in the drug trade.

David Wilson, of the University of Central England, said that the huge amount of money being made out of drugs had led to the use of guns by criminals determined to protect their territory from rivals.

The city’s underworld has flourished from the drugs trade. Four years ago, Nottinghamshire became the first police force to arm officers on patrol. Despite such a radical move, the gang culture shows little sign of abating.

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