A driving instructor who witnessed an horrific shooting which left a couple dead said he tried to intervene but was too late.

Flowers left by the side of the road in Kiln Lane

Kevin Platt, 36, was taking a driving lesson when he saw a man grappling with a woman in Kiln Lane, Risinghurst, Oxford.

He told his pupil to pull over and was about to get out when the first shot was fired.

A husband shot his wife with a sawn-off shotgun in front of their two young sons before Mr Platt could intervene.

Mr Platt, of Bodley Road, Littlemore, said he wanted the woman's relatives to know that he tried to help.

He said: "It's important for the family to know there was someone there and that I tried to do something. I hope it is comforting for them to know that people tried to help.

"There were people there trying to do what they could, but it was too quick. I'm sure if people could have done something, they would have.

"You just don't expect it on a nice sunny afternoon in a quiet road in Headington."

Mr Platt and his pupil, a 17-year-old man, had turned into Kiln Lane from Grovelands Road shortly before 3pm on Friday (April 4) and were travelling slowly towards the ring road.

Mr Platt said he initially thought the assailant was trying to drag the woman into a parked silver Volvo estate car, but later realised he was trying to stop her getting away as he reached for a gun from the foot-well of the car.

He said the man made a grab for a child in the woman's arms.

He said to his pupil 'what's going on here?' and intended to tell the man to stop the assault.

He said: "I was about to get out when the first shot went off.

"I reached for my mobile and dialled 999. Then a second shot went off. I ran to the back of the Volvo. When I got there, they were both face up on the floor."

Mr Platt said a householder ran out and took the couple's two sons, aged three and 18 months, into his house until armed police arrived 20 minutes later.

He said another resident who heard the woman screaming for someone to call the police thought the husband must have been sitting waiting for her in his car until she walked up the street with the children.