Prime Minister meets survivors of Cumbria shootings, as Nick Clegg warns against new gun legislation

Mr Cameron and Home Secretary Theresa May arrived for a private visit at West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven, where five victims are being treated for their injuries.

All five were described today as being in a "comfortable" condition. Two others are being treated in Newcastle.

Many of Bird's 11 surviving victims suffered terrible facial injuries as the killer appeared to deliberately aim for their heads.

Mr Cameron was also meeting NHS staff who were at the front line on Wednesday when the massacre took place.

Later, he and Mrs May were due to meet police officers in Workington.

They will be briefed by senior officers in the case on developments in the wide-ranging investigation.

They will also meet some of those people who were first on the scenes of the killings across West Cumbria.

They included ambulance workers, police officers, firefighters and mountain rescue teams.

At the hospital, Mr Cameron and Mrs May were met by Mike Little, chairman of North Cumbria University Hospitals trust, and chief executive Carole Heatly.

They spent around 50 minutes in the hospital but no details were released about who they met.

Mr Cameron then visited at Workington police station, where he was greeted by Chief Constable Craig Mackey.

Mr Cameron said at the police station: "Obviously, people here in west Cumbria have suffered the most appalling tragedy and it will have a huge impact on the community.

"And I wanted to come here to show (that) the Government wanted to listen, wanted to show how much it cares about what has happened here."

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg also paid tribute today to those killed in Cumbria but warned that new gun legislation would not stop such tragedies happening.

Speaking at the Country Park Inn, in Hessle, East Yorkshire, Mr Clegg described the shootings as a "huge trauma" for a close-knit community.

The deputy prime minister made the comments after spending the morning talking to market traders in Hull.

Mr Clegg said: "My heart goes out to the families of the victims and obviously the victims themselves.

"This is a huge trauma for a very close-knit community and, with each new revelation about the background to what happened, I think more and more people will just be shaking their heads in disbelief that such a peaceful, close-knit community should now have been the scene of such terrible bloodshed."