A HITMAN was hired to shoot a shopworker with a machine gun in a dispute between rival gangs in Bolton and Oldham, a court heard.

Terrified shoppers fled as 27-year-old Simeon Henderson burst into an off licence before firing a volley of shots at and killing Nasar Hussain, aged 30, who was working behind the counter.

A jury at Manchester Crown Court was yesterday shown CCTV footage of the incident in which a hooded Henderson is seen carrying a 1950s Czechoslovakian machine gun in a paper shopping bag.

The footage shows him running into the shop and firing the gun from inside the bag into Mr Hussain’s chest at close range. Mr Hussain is then seen writhing around on the floor and bleeding as a co-worker cowers behind the counter.

Richard Marks, prosecuting, said that after the shooting, at Brookhouse Wines in Salford, a Bolton taxi driver, 25-year-old Akmal Afzal, drove the gunman home with the machine gun in the back of his taxi.

Mr Marks said Henderson had been given the “job”

after a meeting with a number of Asian men from Bolton and Oldham.

There, Henderson heard a conversation in which the men said they were having trouble with a rival gang in Bolton. Mr Marks said Henderson was told to go into a shop and fire bullets as a scare tactic.

Henderson said that on July 4 last year, he was at home when he got a call from Mohammed Hafiz, aged 43, saying that the job was going to be done that day.

It is alleged that Hafiz then arrived at Henderson’s house in his black Mercedes and told him they were going to meet the driver and that a gun had been sorted out. They met a man who introduced himself as “T”, driving a blue Mazda.

The prosecution say “T” was Ryan Manning, aged 22, and the £650 Mazda had been bought for the shooting.

They also met another man called Bhatta who turned up with the machine gun in a paper bag. The prosecution say Bhatta is Arfan Rafiq.

When Henderson went into the shop, however, the court heard that he squeezed the trigger but the gun did not go off. He panicked and tried again and said, “bullets were fired all over the place”. He said he saw the man behind the counter get hit and thought he had killed him.

He ran back to the car and “T” drove him around the corner where he was picked up by Afzal. Afzal, whose address cannot be published, has pleaded not guilty to assisting an offender and possessing a prohibited weapon Hafiz, of Woodlands Road, Cheetham Hill, has pleaded not guilty to murder and two counts of conspiracy to commit wounding with intent. Rafiq, aged 25, of Villa Road, Oldham, pleaded not guilty to murder and conspiracy to commit wounding with intent and possession of a firearm.

Manning, of Bird Street, Higher Ince, has pleaded not guilty to murder.

Henderson, of no fixed abode, has previously pleaded guilty to murder.

The trial continues.