POLICE have been working round the clock to solve the spate of murders at the weekend in and around Glasgow, with a promise to bring the killers to justice.

One of Scotland's leading underworld figures, Tam ''The Licensee'' McGraw, may have fled the country after his right-hand man was stabbed during ''one of the worst weekends in Strathclyde Police's history'' which left five people dead.

McGraw's henchman, Billy McPhee, 38, from Barlanark, died after being stabbed more than 20 times in front of diners at the Brewers Fayre in the east end of the city.

A police source said: ''McGraw will be hurting from this. I would not be surprised if he disappears over to his hideaway in Tenerife.''

It is believed McPhee's death is linked to a feud over drugs territories. One report said a group of young criminals nicknamed the East End Crew had claimed responsibility. Police had no knowledge of the claim.

Six weeks ago, Gordon Ross, also alleged to be a close associate of McGraw, was stabbed to death outside a pub in Shettleston. Trevor Lawson, 32, another alleged associate, died in March last year after being struck by a car near his home in Denny, Stirlingshire.

Graeme Pearson, Strathclyde assistant chief constable, promised to bring all five weekend killers to justice: ''What the public can be assured of is Strathclyde Police's history of investigating murders is almost second to none.''

Mr Pearson said he recognised how just one murder could have a huge impact on a community. ''So to have five in one weekend is almost without precedent.'' He said there was ''nothing to suggest that any of these murders are linked''. The roots of the feuding dates back to when Arthur Thompson Jnr - by then running his father's drugs empire - was shot dead in 1991 outside the family home.

Bobby Glover and Joe Hanlon, associates of McGraw's, were subsequently shot, their bodies found on the very morning of Thompson Jnr's funeral.

Arthur Thompson Snr, dubbed Glasgow's Godfather, died from a heart attack in 1993 - opening the way for McGraw quietly to expand his ''business'' empire.

A decade on, McGraw's privacy is slipping, not least for attending Ross's funeral where mourners also included associates of Paul Ferris, the gangster turned author said to be an arch-rival.

He is also said to have agreed an Inland Revenue deal to escape prosecution for years of tax evasion, been linked to associates of Johnny ''Mad Dog'' Adair's Belfast crime empire, and to have been involved in a vicious fight with Thomas TC Campbell, currently appealing conviction for six murders during the infamous ice cream wars. The death of McPhee, having escaped last November when shot in the face, is the greatest challenge yet to McGraw.

Police are anxious the image of gangland murders should not sour the image of Glasgow.

Mr Pearson said much had been said about Glasgow being the safest city in the UK and how these murders had changed that perception.

However, he added: ''I firmly believe that Glasgow is still the safest city in Britain. It is just a tragic coincidence that we have had five deaths over the past weekend. It is unhelpful to suggest that this past weekend means the floodgates are open for violence on the streets of Glasgow.''

Jack McConnell, first minister, promised that new laws on offenders caught with guns or knives would help to stamp out the menace.

The weekend violence is the worst in Strathclyde since six people were murdered during a heatwave in August 1995.

Kevin Lawson, 19, died in the early hours of Saturday after an unprovoked attack in Shettleston. In an attack later on Saturday, James Herd, 27, died after sustaining serious head injuries in Gartloch Road, Garthamlock.

John Hamilton, 33, of Petershill Drive, Barmulloch, Glasgow, was the fourth murder victim in Glasgow after he was attacked in Birnie Road, Barmulloch, in the early hours of Sunday.

The fifth murder inquiry was launched after the death of Robert Devine, 52, in Port Glasgow, on Saturday.