{"id":648216,"date":"2026-06-20T02:24:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T02:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/648216\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T02:24:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T02:24:12","slug":"two-gunshots-heard-and-people-seen-fleeing-after-shooting-inside-lodge-lane-cafe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/648216\/","title":{"rendered":"Two gunshots heard and people seen fleeing after shooting inside Lodge Lane cafe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Armed police were called to the scene of the shooting in Toxteth<\/p>\n

21:13, 19 Jun 2026Updated 23:35, 19 Jun 2026<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The police scene on Lodge Lane this evening(Image: Liverpool Echo)<\/p>\n

Multiple gunshots were heard amid a shooting inside a cafe on a busy Liverpool street this afternoon (Friday, June 19). Armed police were called to Lodge Lane in Toxteth<\/a> at around 5pm.<\/p>\n

A number of people told the ECHO <\/a>at the scene that the incident took place at Bala B’s Soul Food Kitchen and multiple detectives<\/a>, uniformed and forensic officers were seen heading in and out of the venue. Lodge Lane was shut from Bentley Road to Seacole Close, with police <\/a>later speaking to other shopkeepers located inside the cordon.<\/p>\n

Merseyside Police originally said said no-one was injured<\/a> during the shooting <\/a>but added that several gun casings were found inside the cafe. However, in an update at 11pm, police said that a man suffered a gunshot wound, which is not life-threatening, during the attack and is getting treatment at hospital.<\/p>\n

Paramedics could be seen speaking to people inside the cordon, with a police helicopter hovering above.<\/a><\/p>\n

The hunt for those responsible is ongoing at this stage. One man, who lives on Bentley Road, told the ECHO he heard “what were clearly two gunshots” at around 5pm and then saw people running away from the scene.<\/p>\n

Another man said he had heard that the person responsible shouted “I’ll be back” before fleeing the area in a taxi.<\/p>\n

The cordon, on a bustling street with several shops, restaurants, takeaways and multiple streets of residential housing running off it, attracted dozens of onlookers and forced delivery drivers to find alternative routes.<\/p>\n

\"Forensics<\/p>\n

Forensics and detectives leaving Bala B’s Soul Food Kitchen(Image: Liverpool Echo)<\/p>\n

A group of three friends who also live on Bentley Road were among those watching. A man said: \u201cI got back home at about 6pm and saw all the police.\u201d A woman added: \u201cIt\u2019s not rare to see police here, but it’s rare to see this amount of police around here.\u201d<\/p>\n

One woman living on Sefton<\/a> Park Road, which leads onto Lodge Lane, was horrified when she heard there had been shots fired and argued police incidents like this were becoming too common in Toxteth.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cI don\u2019t like living here. I have to get out. I have a son here. I checked my doorbell footage when I heard it was a shooting but there was nothing there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another woman however said such incidents were rare. She said: \u201cThis is a safe neighbourhood. You don\u2019t get much stuff like this happening around here. I have a panic alarm but have never had to use it.”<\/p>\n

\"Lodge<\/p>\n

Lodge Lane was shut from Bentley Road to Seacole Close as dozens of residents watched on(Image: Liverpool Echo)<\/p>\n

Others realised something had happened when they heard the police helicopter hovering above them, with one man saying he was making a chicken curry at the time when heard the chopper before walking out towards the cordon.<\/p>\n

Chief Inspector Gillian Kearns said: \u201cI would appeal to anyone who may have witnessed the incident, or has any information which could help us with our enquiries to come forward.<\/p>\n

“I would also like to appeal to anyone who works in the area, who has CCTV footage that may have captured the incident to get in touch.\u201cI would like to reassure anyone who works or lives in the area that our officers immediately respond to incidents such as these involving guns and are actively working to make Merseyside a safer place to live and work. \u201cWe are relentless in our pursuit of such offenders who carry dangerous weapons in our community and urge anyone who has any information to contact us so we can find those responsible.\u201dAnyone who has information which can help police in finding anyone responsible can contact Merseyside Police social media desk via X or Facebook<\/a> @MerPolCC. You can also report information via the website: https:\/\/www.merseyside.police.uk\/ro\/report\/ocr\/af\/how-to-report-a-crime\/<\/a> or by calling 101 quoting Incident number 809 of Friday 19 June.Alternatively, contact the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111, or via their website here: https:\/\/crimestoppers-uk.org\/give-information\/forms\/give-information-anonymously<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Armed police were called to the scene of the shooting in Toxteth 21:13, 19 Jun 2026Updated 23:35, 19…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":648217,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[924,59,57,58,2551,2512,50,7804,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-648216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-crime","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-gun-crime","tag-merseyside-police","tag-news","tag-toxteth","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=648216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}