An innocent pensioner was gunned down in his local pub was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, police said today.

Fred Fowler, 72, was enjoying a drink in the Tap and Barrel pub in Salem Street, Hendon, Sunderland, when three men screeched up and fired a shot through the window at point blank range.

Not satisfied the three men then burst into the pub and opened fire again, hitting a 19-year-old youth as regulars dived for cover. Last night the teenager was in a critical condition but comfortable in hospital.

Detective Superintendent Barbara Franklin, who is leading the hunt for the gunmen, said a number of children were playing in the street outside the red-brick pub when the three men arrived outside in a dark Ford Focus.

The children saw one man run out of the car and fire a shot through a window into the pub, before he ran into the bar with an accomplice.

A number of shots were then fired inside the premises, where there were around a dozen drinkers, she said.

Ballistics experts had yet to say whether the first blast from outside the pub was the fatal shot.

But the detective said she was certain Mr Fowler was an innocent bystander.

She said: ''There is nothing in my mind which suggests he was the target. Mr Fowler was an innocent victim in the middle of all this.'' The detective said she was keeping an open mind about the gunmen's motive.

Mr Fowler was single and lived in sheltered accommodation behind the pub, which remained cordoned off last night.

Regulars at the pub in the Hendon area of Sunderland were too upset to speak to officers about the killing.

More than 50 police are working on the case.

Ms Franklin added: ''It is absolutely dreadful the impact this has had on people in the premises.

''It was not easy to get information from them because the trauma they suffered was so significant.

''It has been so horrendous for the people who were in close proximity.

''When we arrived it was fairly chaotic with people running away from the pub.'

"A post mortem examination has revealed Mr Fowler died of a single gunshot wound.

We have ballistics experts going to the scene today to find out the sequence of events in which he met his death.

"This is an absolute tragedy, I am appalled by this incident and we are doing all we can to gather as much information as possible and bring these people to justice."

Read the full story in tomorrow's Northern Echo.