Six suspects were in custody last night, being questioned by detectives hunting the killer of Rhys Jones.

The six - all teenagers and including two girls - are among ten suspects arrested by Merseyside Police over the shooting of the 11-year-old last Wednesday.

The Everton Football Club fan died in the arms of his mother Melanie, 41, after being shot through the neck by a teenager on a BMX.

The killing sparked a political row about gun culture, with Home Secretary Jacqui Smith declaring that the Government's priority in the wake of the killing was to get firearms off the streets.

She said officials were working with police on a series of measures to encourage people to report or hand in illegally-held weapons.

People who knew where firearms were hidden or were holding them for a relative or friend needed to be able to come forward anonymously without fear of reprisals or arrest, she said.

But the proposals were greeted with scorn by Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Herbert, who said ministers had failed to address the scale of the problem.

"It's a feeble response. I think the Government, frankly, seem paralysed in the wake of this real concern in the country about the increase in violence and in particular the increase in knife crime and gun crime," he said.

Yesterday, officers confirmed that a potentially key witness - a woman pushing a pram at the scene of the shooting five minutes before the incident - had been traced and was helping police with the investigation.

But Croxteth Park resident Emma Ahmed, 33, said Rhys's murder would not have happened if police had made good a plan to site a mobile police station on the Fir Tree pub car park - where Rhys was killed.

Mrs Ahmed, a solicitor who sits on the committee of the Croxteth Country Park Residents' Association, said: "We have been working for the last year to improve the estate.

"We were promised a mobile pod, a mobile police station, and it should have been here in April and would have been stationed on the car park where Rhys died, but police said they didn't have the resources. There is no doubt in my mind he wouldn't have died if that had been there."

The force did not respond to questions about Mrs Ahmed's allegation.

Rhys's brother yesterday made his first visit to the huge floral shrine marking the crime scene.

Owen Jones, flanked by four friends, delivered a large bouquet and remained to pay his respects for several minutes.

The 17-year-old also delivered an Everton rug bearing the motto "The People's Club".

Placing it on the ground, he paused to look over the hundreds of bunches of flowers, before he and his friends were escorted through the cordon by police officers.