Detectives from PSNI Serious Crime Branch are looking to speak to 58-year-old Kieran McLaughlinin relation to the murder of Barry McCrory in L'Derry City yesterday.

35-year-old Mr McCrory was shot dead in a flat in the Shipquay Street area of the city.

The officer leading the investigation, Detective Chief Inspector Ian Harrison, has appealed for information from the public.

"First of all I want to make a direct appeal to anyone who was in the area of Shipquay Street this morning to come forward with any information that could assist with our enquiry.

"We know that sometime between 10:30 and 10:45 a man carrying a rucksack entered a block of flats and shot and fatally wounded 35-year-old Barry McCrory. Barry’s partner was in another room of the flat at the time of the shooting. She was not physically injured but is understandably distraught by what has happened to her partner.

"Shipquay Street is a busy and popular part of the city and at that time of the day there will have been residents going about their daily lives, people on their way to work and tourists walking around or out shopping. I am confident that someone will have seen the shooter enter or exit the flat. It is important that those people come forward and share what they know or what they have seen with my detectives.

"We have already heard many within the local community openly condemn this murder and the people of this city are rightly outraged by what has happened here today. That condemnation needs to be backed up with information. Barry’s killer needs to be found and dealt with by the courts and his family deserve answers."

A further shooting occurred yesterday morning in north Belfast, in which a local father of four was murdered and his body dumped in a nearby lake.

First Minister Peter Robinson said the murders were "a grim reminder of the kind of violence which the vast majority of people in Northern Ireland want to see consigned to the past.

"The rule of law is absolutely paramount and there can be no justification for anyone taking justice into their own hands. Anyone with information about these shootings must bring it to the police and I would hope that those responsible can be swiftly brought to justice."

Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said: "Over the past 24 hours two men have been murdered in Belfast and Derry. I condemn these murders without equivocation. Those responsible claim to be dissident republicans. They are not republicans of any shade. They are entirely motivated by criminal intent.

"Many of these gangs are involved in the drug trade themselves. They are routinely extorting money from drug dealers and other criminals. They are heavily involved in all sorts of organised crime. Yet they carry out murders like the ones we have witnessed in Belfast and Derry under the bogus notion that they are standing up for the community.

"The community have already made their stand. They have stood against gangsterism and criminality and stood for peace and building a new future. The community now need to work with the PSNI to bring forward information to allow them to tackle criminality and the criminal gangs who seek to profit on the backs of ordinary decent people."

Ulster Unionist MLA Ross Hussey, who is a member of the Policing Board, said: "Nobody wants to return to the days when news bulletins carried regular reports of shootings and bombings. Those who remain intent on inflicting their violence and criminality on society – for any reason - have been comprehensively rejected by the people and the entire community must assist the Police to rid this cancer from our midst.

"Those who are still wedded to the gun are fascists plain and simple. They belong behind bars where they cannot taint the peaceful future which the rest of us are trying to build."

Anyone with information about the murder is asked to contact detectives at Strand Road on 0845 600 8000.

Alternatively, the independent charity Crimestoppers can be contacted anonymously on 0800 555 111.

(IT/CD)