British police hunt man after gun fired outside London mosque

British police have launched an investigation after a man fired a gun outside a mosque in East London on Thursday evening.

Police said they believe the weapon was a blank-firing handgun. No injuries were reported.

The man had attempted to enter the Seven Kings Mosque in Ilford as worshippers were gathered inside for nightly Ramadan prayers, police said.

He was then "ushered out," according to police, before the single shot was fired.

Police say they are not treating the incident as terror-related.

"We were upstairs in the classrooms and about 30 minutes into the night prayer a large noise went off," a witness told the Press Association.

"I just continued my prayer, it sounded like a firework or maybe something heavy had been dropped, so no-one really thought anything of it.

"After we finished we were leaving the shoe area and someone said it was a gunshot, someone had come into the mosque and he had a firearm on him."