A MINISTER has complained to Scotland Yard about the time that elapsed before police reached the scene of a drive-by shooting in which a 17-year-old lay wounded.

David Lammy, the MP for Tottenham in North London and Minister for Constitutional Affairs, helped to give the teenager first aid outside a community centre on the Broadwater Farm estate in North London.

He said yesterday: “Police arrived just outside Broadwater Farm and there was a delay of about ten minutes before they came in. People were incredibly frustrated. The delay in the police reaching the scene is extremely disturbing. Paramedics would not come on to the estate until the police came with them. My position is that there can be no no-go areas in London.

“If that young man had died we would be facing a much more serious situation. Answers are needed for me and my constituents.”

The boy was shot in the shoulder when a masked gang in a car drove by and opened fire. There were children near him at the time.

A police spokesman said that when shots are fired and someone is injured police had to make sure the gunmen were not still in the area before moving in.

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