Scarred communities weep for victims of crazed taxi gunman

Exactly seven days after the horrific killing spree which has left deep scars in towns and villages across the area, eight different memorials were held yesterday in honour of the dead, culminating with a minute's silence at midday.

In Frizington, just two miles from where Bird lived, around 100 people gathered near the village's war memorial to remember Bird's victims.

Deputy Mayor of Copeland John Jackson said: "People still can't believe it happened. A lot of people are traumatised by it, because everybody you talk to knows somebody affected in some way or other.

"But I think they are getting through it by talking to each other, helping each other, being a shoulder to lean on."

In nearby Seascale, where Bird killed former Sellafield worker Michael Pike, 64, Jane Robinson, 66, who lived with her twin sister Barrie, and estate agent Jamie Clarke, 23, hundreds more people attended a service, following a similar ceremony on Sunday.

Firefighter and local councillor David Moore, 57, who tried in vain to save Mr Pike and Miss Robinson, said it would take time for the village to recover.

"Unfortunately devastation and carnage has arrived in our village, and this service is about coming to terms with that," he said. "This is a community in stunned silence. It has not come to terms with it yet – a week has disappeared in our lives.

"We have to mark the occasion today and we must now try to move on. We are a strong, close-knit community and we will pull through this."

Rev Ann Baker led a service in the tiny hamlet of Boot, just a few hundred yards from where the gunman shot himself as police closed in last Wednesday.

She spoke of the "sense of surrealism" as local people tried to come to terms with the horror that unfolded in their midst last week.

"It's been incredibly difficult because it's such a peaceful area," she said. "We're almost in a timewarp. Nothing much changes round here and our pleasures are in the glorious countryside and in the serenity of this area.

"So this is the sort of thing that just doesn't happen here – it's been said so many times."

Memorial services were also held in the towns and villages of Whitehaven, Egremont, Gosforth, Cleator Moor and Millom.

MPs also marked the minute's silence for the victims in the House of Commons ahead of Prime Minister's Questions, with David Cameron confirming the Government would look again at Britain's gun laws.

He announced the Association of Chief Police Officers will oversee reviews of why Bird had gun licences, Cumbria Police's armed response to the shootings and police firearms tactics in general.

But the Independent Police Complaints Commission said it would not, at this stage, be investigating Cumbria Police's handling of the shootings.

Mr Cameron also cautioned against "leaping to conclusions" or creating "knee-jerk legislation".