Robbers Shot Dead by Police: Inquest Starts

The last moments of two robbers shot dead by police marksmen as they raided a bank cash van four years ago have been shown to an inquest jury.

A video of covert surveillance by Metropolitan Police officers was played as Mark Nunes, 35 and Andrew Markland, 36, attempted to rob the G4S van outside the HSBC bank in Chandler's Ford in September 2007.

Nunes got out of a Volvo estate and went towards the van as it made the delivery.

He was seen pointing a handgun at the head of the guard and was almost immediately shot dead by a police marksman hidden at an observation post opposite the bank.

Markland, who was waiting at a bus stop over the road, was seen to run over to the guard and Nunes.

Central Hampshire Coroner Grahame Short told the jury the film showed that Markland ''appeared'' to pick up the gun before he was shot dead by another marksman.

The families of the dead men, who were from London, wept as the footage was shown at the hearing at Winchester Coroner's Court.

Police had been at several locations in Hampshire after intelligence told them a gang would rob a van in the south coast county.

Officers had been investigating a series of armed and unarmed robberies in London and the Home Counties with the operational name Hurlock and had identified Nunes as a suspect.

Mr Short told the jury that it would look at the ''operational and tactical decisions that preceded those events'' to consider how the men met their deaths.

He said the hearing would hear from a number of Metropolitan Police officers at the scene and some of them would give evidence anonymously.

Post-mortem examinations found Nunes died from a high-velocity gunshot wound to the chest which exited through the neck and Markland died from two separate high-velocity gunshot wounds to the chest.

The inquest is expected to take six weeks.