Maye, from Sallyswood, Irvinestown, had been on a life support machine in Belfast City Hospital since the shooting but was well enough on Monday to be returned to the Erne Hospital in Enniskillen. Detectives were planning to interview him there on Tuesday afternoon, provided he had made sufficient recovery.

    The man heading the investigation into the attempted murder is Detective Chief Inspector Norman Baxter. He is concerned that criminals operating in Fermanagh are now prepared to resort to increasing levels of violence, including the use of firearms. He says a number of weapons are in circulation and he is urging the public to act now by passing on any information they might have about this latest attack.

    Maye, who is well known to the courts and has an extensive criminal record, was dropped off by friends at his girlfriend’s house in Kilmacormick Avenue around 9pm last Wednesday. Police say he went to leave around 10.20pm, but first he checked that items he had left in the back of his van, which was parked outside, had not been tampered with. As he walked up the passenger side of the vehicle and across the front to get to the driver’s door he was confronted by two masked men, one of them brandishing a double-barrel shotgun. One witness described it as being a sawn off shotgun.

    The gunman blasted Maye in the stomach with both barrels at close range. The 37-year-old fell to the ground and his two attackers ran off down an entry, dividing a row of houses, into Kilmacormick Drive.

    Detectives would like to speak to the driver of a red Ford Escort seen driving off at speed from Kilmacormick Drive immediately after the shooting. It was an old model of the car, perhaps a Mark 3, and was being driven without lights, even though it was dark.

    There was a number of people in the Escort, which turned left on to the Cornagrade Road, travelling into Enniskillen town in the direction of the Johnston Bridge roundabout.

    “We would appeal to the driver of this car to come forward so he can be eliminated from our enquiries,” said DCI Baxter.

    Despite being seriously wounded Maye struggled to his feet and got back inside his girlfriend’s house before collapsing in the hallway. He was taken by ambulance to the Erne Hospital where he was in an operating theatre for over two hours as medical staff worked to save his life.

    Maye was transferred to the City Hospital in Belfast last Thursday and remained on a ventilator in intensive care. He was returned to the Erne on Monday.

    According to one report, which detectives have so far been unable to substantiate, Maye recognised one of his masked attackers and called out his name. It is the second time Maye has been targeted by a gunman in the past 14 months. He was one of three men in a Ford Transit van blasted with a shotgun as it travelling along the Fintona to Dromore road on Valentine’s Day last year. He sustained only minor injuries.

    In a follow up operation to last Wednesday night’s attack police recovered two wads from shotgun cartridges and removed Maye’s blood-spattered van to Enniskillen RUC Station for forensic examination.

    “It is attempted murder,” confirmed DCI Baxter. “There is no doubt about it. If you walk up to someone and shoot him twice in the stomach, it is attempted murder.”

    He is concerned that the men who carried out the attack showed no regard for the people living in the area.

    “It was an extremely reckless act because of the nature of shotgun cartridges and the spread of shot, and there were children in the house. The gunman didn’t know who was going to be standing about when this guy walked out of the house,” he stated.

    He believes the attack was carefully planned. Asked about a possible motive he said: “At this stage we are keeping an open mind.”

    Returning to the use of a firearm DCI Baxter warned: “It would be an indication that there are criminal elements who are prepared to use ever more increasing levels of violence. It is a worrying development that criminals have access to weapons.”

    Those weapons include eight shotguns stolen in a raid in Fivemiletown in September 1999.

    DCI Baxter is anxious to protect the public by taking the criminals and their weapons out of circulation.

    “We would be concerned about the increasing use of violence by criminals and would ask the public to pass on any information they have,” he said.

    “We are interested in speaking to anyone who saw the gunman and his accomplice prior to the shooting and immediately after the shooting. We have conducted house-to-house enquiries in the area but we would appeal to anyone we haven’t spoken to - perhaps people who were visiting in the area at the time - to come forward,” he stated.