A GANG involved in the Birmingham barber shop shooting were today warned by police to expect more arrests.

Four gang members were last week jailed for a total of 72 years for the brutal attack on Mohammed Javed as he sat having his hair cut.

Detectives believe at least four more attackers were involved in the organised "hit" on Mr Javed - described in court as like "something out of a gangster film".

Birmingham Crown Court heard how the 22-year-old victim was shot in the buttock, hacked with a machete, rammed by a car as he fled, slashed and repeatedly shot again as he lay injured on a shop floor in Aston.

Judge John Saunders said the incident, on a sunny Saturday afternoon in Witton Road in June 2003, followed an escalation of violence between two gangs on streets of Aston.

It is understood that Mr Javed was targeted because he stood up to a member of the Lamb Gang.

Qadeem Mohammed, Naseem Mohammed, Naveed Mohammed and Shamus Iqbal were each jailed for 18 years for attempted murder.

Police chiefs in Aston said the convictions showed to the community-that no one was "untouchable".

The detective who led the probe today said the gang had made a "grave miscalculation" of the ability of the police to catch them and warned others involved that they were not in the clear.

Det Chief Insp Nigel Rock said: "We know there were as many as ten masked offenders involved.

"We are still actively seeking the others. If anyone in the community has information about who they were I would ask them to come forward."

The shooting happened as gun crime swept through inner-city areas.

Six months earlier innocent party-goers Letisha Shakespeare and Charlene Ellis were gunned down by gangsters.

Supt Mick Rose, from Queen's Road police, said a "couple of years of dedicated police work" had now turned the tide and fostered greater trust from the public.

The area has seen a dramatic reduction in gun crime.

"There has been an increase in respect and trust that a lot of people in Aston have in the police as a direct result of this," said Supt Rose.

mark_cowan@mrn.co.uk