A FUGITIVE doctor who sparked a nationwide manhunt after his girlfriend was gunned down in a pub car park in England was arrested by police in Lennoxtown outside Glasgow last night.

Dr Thomas Shanks, a former SAS soldier trained in counter terrorism and assault techniques, is believed to have been apprehended while making a call from a public phone box in the small village at the foot of the Campsie hills. His grey Peugeot was parked nearby and a weapon was recovered in the street.

He was arrested at 7.50pm and taken to a police station in Glasgow where he was being interviewed last night. A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police said: ''Officers from West Yorkshire will be attending. We won't be releasing any further information tonight.''

The man was arrested following a tip-off from The Sun newspaper, whose Scottish editor alerted police after receiving a phone call from the man's brother. He called from his home in Glasgow and revealed that the man had phoned him from a pay phone in nearby Strathblane.

The brother said he feared the man was about to commit suicide. The brother is now being interviewed by police, the paper said.

Dr Shanks, 47, disappeared after nurse Vicky Fletcher died from multiple wounds when a gunman opened fire with a large automatic weapon in a pub car park in Castleford, West Yorkshire.

Born in Blackhill, Glasgow, he was believed to be heading for the Birmingham area, where his ex-wife lives. However, Strathclyde Police armed intervention units were on standby in case Dr Shanks returned to the Glasgow area.

Stunned residents in Lennoxtown watched as police moved in to apprehend the doctor at around 8pm last night. One woman, who went into her drive to find an unmarked police van parked in it, said: ''There was massive police activity earlier in the evening with a police helicopter and police cars all over the place.

''At one point the police closed off part of the road and no-one could get through.''

She went on: ''You just don't expect something like this to happen in a place like Lennoxtown. It's the kind of place where people often don't bother to lock their doors.''

Earlier, West Yorkshire Police had warned the public not to approach Dr Shanks, an anaesthetist at Pontefract General Hospital, while West Midlands Police mobilised an armed response unit in Birmingham, closed a school where his ex-wife Julie works, and took Mrs Shanks and her nine-year-old daughter into police protection.

Other relatives were also moved from their homes to other accommodation as a precautionary measure. Police said Dr Shanks telephoned his ex-wife several times after the shooting on Thursday night.

Ms Fletcher, 21, died of wounds to her back, arms and legs early yesterday in the same hospital where she worked with Dr Shanks. She had been drinking with friends in the Castlefields pub shortly before the gunman started firing into it.

Stephen Thackray, 30, who was celebrating his last night as pub manager, said it was a scene of ''pandemonium''.

''All hell broke loose. Shots were firing everywhere and everyone

Continued on Page 3

Continued from Page 1

dived for cover. Everyone was shouting 'get down, get down'.

Mr Thackray added: ''There were about 80 people inside the pub and bullets came straight through the inner doors and went into the bar. Glass and mirrors were shattered.'' He said people waited until the firing had stopped

before they went out to attend to Miss Fletcher.

There were 20 spent cartridges outside the pub and two bullets inside. A police source said Miss Fletcher had walked out of the pub into the car park where the gunman opened fire. Attempting to flee, she managed to scale metal railings and was heading back to the pub's entrance when the gunman fired a second burst leaving her dying on the ground.

West Yorkshire Police Detective Superintendent Paul Johnston, who is leading the hunt, said he had taken the unusual step of naming the doctor because police had a ''duty of care'' to protect the public.

The doctor, who has worked at the hospital since January 1995, and lived in hospital accommodation, was reported to have been seen in the town at 8.55am yesterday. Miss Fletcher, described as attractive and popular, trained at the hospital and worked there as a state registered nurse from last September.

She lived alone in the Pontefract area but was said locally to have been a frequent visitor to the doctor's flat. Her family - father Mick, mother Jeanette and 18-year-old brother Timothy - were too upset to speak to police.

New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, confirmed that Dr Shanks was employed there from July 1993, to December 1994.

One member of staff said the doctor was a lively, outgoing person who claimed to have been in the SAS before going to medical school. ''A girl who knew him very well says the doctor was a gregarious character and a member of the special forces,'' the source said.

Dr Shanks left the hospital and moved to Yorkshire five years ago when his marriage failed. He left his daughter in the Midlands with his wife, the source added..