A shooting and firebomb attack at a Wigan pub may be linked to an earlier attack in which a woman was shot twice.
That is one line of inquiry which police are pursuing, the MEN understands.
Just before 11pm on Saturday police responded after receiving reports of a Molotov cocktail being thrown at Bryn Hall pub in Bamfurlong and gunshots.
There were no injuries, but police today confirmed a gun was fired.
It is not linked to a shooting on Bickershaw Lane in Wigan last week.
But police believe it could be linked to an incident on Thursday September 12th at 12.20am when a woman was shot twice in the back through a front window of her home in Wigan.
The 41-year-old was taken to hospital but has since recovered. In the attack as many as ten shots were fired at the house in Redland Court, Bamfurlong.
Five minutes earlier a gunman had peppered the front of a house with bullets in Vicarage Road, in nearby Abram.
A black BMW M4 parked on the road was also damaged, with photographs from the scene appearing to show its rear window shot out.
A second BMW, the M3, was discovered burnt-out on a dirt track leading off Bolton Road, about 100 metres down from the Redland Court scene of the shooting.
In relation to the shooting of the woman at Redland Court a 44-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. He has since been released under investigation.
Police believe the pub incident is not linked to a shooting on Bickershaw Lane in Wigan earlier this week.
A man was left with life-changing injuries after he was blasted with a shotgun while sat in a Range Rover. The gunman had pulled alongside in a black Audi.
That shooting took place directly opposite a car park where Billy Livesley was murdered in 2018.
Mr Livesley, 21, died after being hit on the head with a crowbar by David Connors on a car park off Bickershaw Lane on December 28th last year.
David Connors, 24, was jailed for life at Manchester Crown Court. His brother, Peter Connors, 32, was found not guilty of murder and manslaughter after the trial.
David Connors said he was acting in self-defence, but the jury did not believe him.
