David King was shot outside a gym in Hertfordshire

He was named on Saturday as 32-year-old David King, who is from Stevenage and is thought to be a father of three.

Hertfordshire Police believe King, who was shot dead outside a gym in Hoddesdon on Friday, was deliberately targeted.

Two masked men pulled up alongside King in a van and opened fire with an automatic weapon - also injuring his friend.

Detective Superintendent Steve Read, of Hertfordshire Police, said: "People capable of carrying out this sort of attack need to be taken out of society - it is very important that we catch them."

King's death was followed by a further drive-by shooting in Reading on Friday night, in which three men were injured.

The victims were thought to have been hit by shotgun pellets. None of their injuries were thought to be life threatening.

Third shooting

Hertfordshire Police said King's friend had been released from hospital and was staying at an undisclosed location. He is helping police with their inquiries.

Assistant chief constable Jeremy Alford said the force would be investigating King and his associates to find a motive.

The people behind much of the serious crime in this country hide behind respectability - they live in leafy suburbs Keith Hellawell Three hurt in Reading 'drive-by'

"There is not, in our opinion, a general threat to the people of Hoddesdon, or wider in Hertfordshire," he said.

But police patrols were being stepped up in the town following the shooting.

'Leafy suburbs

With the Reading shootings and the killing of jeweller Marian Bates in Nottingham this week, concerns are growing about the level of gun crime in the UK.

Former police chief and government drugs tsar Keith Hellawell told BBC Radio 4's Today programme there was "no doubt" gun crime was becoming more of a serious problem.

He said although the public was becoming more used to shootings in urban centres, rural areas were also likely to attract criminals.

"Criminality stretches far beyond the centres of cities. The people behind much of the serious crime in this country hide behind respectability. They live in leafy suburbs."

Manchester police deputy chief constable Alan Green - who chairs a police group on criminal use of firearms - said they were looking at changing legislation on protection of witnesses in such cases.

"One of the areas that is of grave concern is our ability to get witnesses to court and see them through safely without intimidation," he said.