Manama: A Bahraini security guard who was shot 10 days ago in a crime that has baffled the nation succumbed to his wounds, medical officials announced yesterday.

Abbas Al Shakhoori, 27, was standing on the steps outside the BJ's nightspot in Manama where he worked, when he was struck by a bullet fired from a distance at around 2am on March 30.

Doctors at the Salmaniya hospital where he was taken declared him brain dead, but kept him on life support amid attempts by health ministry officials to have more expert opinions from international hospitals. A surgeon flown in from Jordan last week confirmed that Al Shakhoori's condition was critical.

According to a public prosecution spokesman, the bullet which felled Al Shakhoori entered his skull from the right and exploded into 27 pieces in his brain. However, nine days into the investigation, the police did not recover any weapon or identify any suspect in the rare shooting incident.

Second killing

"The interior ministry has a duty to find the perpetrator of the crime to prove that it can guarantee the security and protection of the people. Failure to arrest the criminal would necessitate a radical change that would make the ministry truly capable of protecting citizens," Al Wefaq Society said in a statement, a copy of which was sent to Gulf News.

Bahrain imposes a strict ban on firearms, but the shooting last month was the second time in six months that a Bahraini has been fatally gunned down.

"We feel deeply concerned about what has happened," the chairman of the company that owns the club, Akram Meknas, last week told a media conference. "Every individual in our society has been troubled by the shooting. I have received tremendous number of phone calls," he said.

Al Shakhoori, one of eight brothers and sisters, got married last December and was working as a driver for a company during the day and as a security staff at the hotel at night to earn extra cash, according to relatives.

The BJ's nightclub is popular among Westerners, mainly from Britain and the US, and initial versions claimed that Al Shakhoori was shot during a scuffle that included US Marines.

But Lt Commander Charlie Brown, spokesman for the US Navy, denied that American Marines were involved.