Chelsea lawyer's post-mortem results due

LONDON (AFP) - The post-mortem results are expected Thursday on the body of a lawyer who was killed in a shootout with police in London's plush Chelsea district.

The details of the examination are to be released by the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which is investigating the shooting.

Tuesday's gun battle sparked a major security clampdown, with parts of the King's Road sealed off in an operation which ended when crack police commandos stormed the house where he was holed up.

It is not clear yet whether barrister Mark Saunders, 32, was killed by a police bullet.

He died after a tense five-hour standoff with police marksmen surrounding his 2.2 million pound flat in upmarket Markham Square.

Colleagues at his employer, QEB Chambers, voiced shock at the news. "This is a personal tragedy. It is nothing to do with the chambers. Our thoughts are with his family," said one.

Saunders was educated at Christ Church College, Oxford, and had been a barrister since 1999.

Witnesses described how his girlfriend or former partner fled the property in tears shortly before the first shots rang out.

Neighbour Jane Winkworth, who lived below the gunman, said he opened fire while she was in the back garden. At least three bullets missed her as she ran inside to call police, she added.

According to military sources, Saunders was a member of the Territorial Army's Honourable Artillery Company for three years until 2002.

He kept a legally registered shotgun kept at his home.

During the incident, Saunders appeared calm and composed, shouting only "I can't hear you" at police officers as they tried to negotiate his surrender.

The standoff ended when officers from Scotland Yard's elite CO19 specialist firearms unit stormed his Georgian terrace house, using stun grenades before a final shootout in which the semi-naked gunman was fatally wounded.

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