A 22-year-old man was shot dead early today in the fourth shooting in Bradford this month.

Police were called to Amberley Street off Leeds Road at 1.26am following reports of gun shots.

When police arrived they found a man with a gun shot wound slumped in a green Honda Civic car.

He was treated by ambulance staff but pronounced dead at the scene.

Police have not confirmed whether the latest incident is connected to the three previous shootings.

The name of the dead man has not been released until family have been notified, but police confirmed he was from Bradford.

A police cordon, guarded by uniformed officers, cut off half the homes in Amberley Street this morning, stretching around the back of a block of three-story terraced houses into the alleyway behind.

As stunned residents looked on, forensic officers worked around a large tent in the alley at the back of Amberley Street which separates a row of back-to-back homes in neighbouring Gladstone Street.

Speaking at the scene, Sergeant Phil Tyson said: "We are preserving the scene and have scene of crime officers here."

This morning's events followed three arrests after police swooped on homes across the district in a series of raids yesterday.

Around 80 police, some of them armed, raided five addresses in the Manningham and Girlington areas of Bradford, and also in Keighley.

The raid was described as "a large-scale firearms operation" and is related to three shootings in recent weeks in and around the Leeds Road area.

Three Bradford men in their late twenties were arrested after the five houses were raided and searched. Those arrested were also being questioned about the possession of firearms recovered by police earlier this month.

Detective Inspector Noel Devine, of Bradford North CID, said today: "All three men have been released on police bail pending further inquiries."

One of the men arrested was being questioned about a shooting on September 9 in Lower Rushton Road, off Leeds Road, when a 32-year-old was shot in the back and seriously wounded during a disturbance involving up to 150 people. The victim has been released from hospital.

Police said inquiries were continuing into two other shootings in the Leeds Road area after September 9.

Four cars were recovered from the premises during the raids.

They are being examined to see if they may be connected to any of the shooting incidents. No weapons were seized.

Police announced earlier this week that they were investigating whether the three previous shootings were linked.

The spate of shootings began on September 9 and six days later a man wearing a balaclava mask jumped out of a silver Honda Accord car and fired a gun at a blue Vauxhall Vectra on the forecourt of the Shell filling station in Leeds Road.

The Honda was abandoned minutes later and set on fire in Burnsall Road, Bradford Moor and three men were seen running away.

In the early hours of Saturday, September 18, a 23- year-old man from Bradford Moor was seriously wounded in the arm during a drive-by shooting. He was driving an N registered red Volkswagon Golf towards Thornbury roundabout when a brown Vauxhall Vectra pulled alongside and two shots were fired, shattering the driver's window.