ARMED rioters tried to shoot down the police helicopter as it filmed them on the rampage outside a ransacked Birmingham pub.

At least eight shots were fired at police and officers dived for cover inside their van as trouble flared outside the Bartons Arms, in Newtown, in the early hours of Wednesday August, 10.

In a chilling development, the Birmingham Mail has now learned that detectives believe the helicopter was also shot at as it hovered overhead.


The aircraft was not thought to have been hit.

The hunt to trace the gunmen behind the shooting has now been given the highest priority.

Det Supt Tim Bacon, who is overseeing the investigation, said: “The actions of this group of men show a different type of criminality. Shots were fired at unarmed police officers and the police helicopter which were a clear threat to people’s lives.

“This is being treated as attempted murder and we are asking for the public’s help. There are people out there who know who these people were and we ask them to come forward.

“A major investigation is underway involving detectives, forensics and ballistic specialists.”

It happened as police responded to reports balaclava-clad thugs had smashed windows, stole booze and started fires inside the pub.

Pub managers Siriporn and Wichai Thumjaroen hid in their flat as an estimated 30 yobs, some said to be as young as 13, rampaged through their bar.

Officers were forced to duck down inside a vehicle after seeing flashes and hearing bangs they believed were gunshots as they responded to the couple’s plea for help.

The police helicopter is understood to have recorded what appeared to be the gun being fired as it tracked the group gathered outside the pub, from the air.

Four spent 9mm bullet casing were later found during a search of the area the following day by specialist forensic teams.

A number of bullets are understood to have been found in a nearby building. A further four cartridges were also found. All the ballistics material has been sent to a firearms forensic lab for examination to see if it is linked to any other shootings in the city.

More details were expected to be released today by the Chief Constable Chris Sims and Det Supt Tim Bacon.

It is not the first time the police helicopter has been targeted by crooks.

The previous £4 million Eurocopter model was torched in a firebomb attack in June 2009.

And the replacement model has repeatedly been hit by laser pens, the most recent at the weekend when a laser was shone from a car into the cockpit.

Officers tracked the black VW Golf through Halesowen, Quinton and into Edgbaston where it was stopped and three men arrested.

The chilling development marks a new low for the rioting that swept the streets of Birmingham and the Black Country earlier this week.

It indicates that organised gangs could have used the rioting as a cover to commit crime.

During the Lozells riots in October 2005, drugs gangs were feared to have “exploited and exacerbated” tensions between members of the black and Asian communities to grab more territory.