People will be killed at a trouble-plagued Wolverhampton pub if it is not shut down, licensing chiefs were warned today.

Police want to shut the Waggon and Horses in Cannock Road until January next year and impose strict conditions on its re-opening.

Shootings, knife incidents, prostitution and people-smuggling were part of a catalogue of crime allowed to carry on unchecked at the pub, it was claimed today.

The application was being heard by Wolverhampton City Council’s licensing sub-committee which has the power to close the pub for good. However police are applying for a three-month shutdown. Residents, who have lodged a 278-name petition to the authority, want the premises closed permanently.

Michael Pearce, police licensing officer, said the pub had become known as a “gang location”. Drugs were also found strewn inside the pub, the committee heard. Mr Pearce warned: “This is a community pub and if the licence is not removed, then loss of life will occur.”

The hearing continues.