Boy, 7, is killed in shoot-out.

A BOY of seven was one of two people killed by gangsters armed with Uzi sub machine guns on Spain's Costa Del Sol.

A 36-year-old hairdresser also died in the shoot-out in upmarket Puerto Banus, a resort popular with Brits.

A former bodyguard of Spanish movie star Antonio Banderas was left fighting for his life.

The gun battle began when three hooded men attempted to assassinate a suspected drugs baron as he sat in a hair salon on Saturday.

The hairdresser and the boy were killed as the gunmen sprayed bullets into the room.

But their intended target, believed to be a French-Algerian Mafia boss, escaped.

His bodyguard, 42-year-old Francisco Becerra Jimenez, was hit twice in the shoulder, twice in the ribs and in an arm and leg.

A police source said: 'No Britons were involved.

'This was one of the most serious cases of score-settling among the criminal fraternity who now plague this coast with their activities.'

In October, an unidentified east European died during a shoot-out in Marbella.

And in May, a French-Algerian man and a police officer were seriously wounded in a running gun battle.

Police say the Costa is gripped by organised crime.

Last year, they broke up 53 criminal organisations, many of them British, who were trafficking in drugs, stolen cars, arms and laundering money.

They also seized more than pounds 1million from secret bank accounts.

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