A 26-year-old man was rushed to hospital last night after he was shot several times.

A senior police officer at the scene told The Royal Gazette that there had been a firearms incident and that a man had been taken to the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital with gunshot wounds.

Police said that spent cartridges and live ammunition had been recovered at the scene and that the man was undergoing surgery.

Detective Inspector Jason Smith earlier declined to comment further on the man’s injuries.

He said: “He has been shot. The full circumstances of that are being developed as we speak and once we have more information on that we should be able to update you further.”

The incident happened at a house in Frithholme Gardens, Paget, off South Shore Road near the Elbow Beach Hotel, just before 8pm.

Mr Smith said police wanted to talk to two men on a white motorbike seen headed west after the shooting.

A police spokesman added: “The rider was dressed in all black clothing while the pillion passenger wore a tan jacket.”

Mr Smith said earlier: “There’s also some information that there might have been a motor car involved.

“So what we’re appealing for is for persons who were travelling along South Shore Road in Paget just before 8pm who might have seen a white bike, two men on that bike.

“The behaviour of that bike is what we’re interested in – we understand it was travelling at a high rate of speed.”

The spokesman added the car detectives wanted to trace was being driven “in an erratic manner” and was headed east on South Road just after the shooting.

Mr Smith said police were still working on the details of the identity of the victim and would not speculate on the possibility that it was a gang-related incident.

He added that inquiries were at an early stage and appealed for witnesses.