Rachel Stevens in restaurant gun drama
Reality TV star Rachel Stevens was among those caught up in a gun drama at a London restaurant on Friday night, according to The Sun. The paper reports that the former S Club 7 singer - who finished second in the 2008 series of Strictly Come Dancing - was dining at Harry Morgan's in St John's Wood with members of her family when a masked gunman burst in. The 31-year-old, her family and other diners threw themselves to the floor in shock as the man - who was reportedly wearing a biker's helmet and carrying two pistols - let off a volley of shots. Witnesses said he chased another man into the venue and shot him in the leg. He and another man who was injured by broken glass were taken to hospital. "Rachel and her family were dining when the shooting happened," her spokeswoman told the paper. "It was very frightening." BBC chief economic correspondent Hugh Pym, who was also there, said, "I immediately went to ground and pulled my 15-year-old son under the table. "Everyone was shouting, 'Stay down, stay down.' People were pretty shaken up and were wailing in shock." Another diner said, "It sounded like three shots were fired. People were terrified." The incident comes just weeks after Stevens was robbed of her engagement ring and other jewellery outside her North London home.
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Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.
An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.