A nine-year-old girl is in a critical condition after being shot by an attacker on a motorbike while having dinner with her family.
She was one of four victims injured at about 9.20pm on Wednesday at a restaurant in Hackney, east London.
Police said the girl was “fighting for her life”, while three men who were sat outside – aged 26, 37 and 42 – are in a stable condition.
One of them faces “potentially facing life changing injuries”, said Chief Superintendent James Conway.
People were outside having dinner at the Turkish restaurant on Kingsland High Street when the shooting occurred.
Witnesses said they initially thought it was fireworks, before hearing a motorbike screech off.
Police said the girl was eating inside the restaurant at the time and don’t believe she knew the other victims.
Chief Supt Conway, speaking on Thursday afternoon, said she was an “innocent victim of the indiscriminate nature of gun crime”.
He said armed officers are on patrol locally as part of an increased police presence to provide “reassurance and support”.
A stolen motorbike believed to have been used in the shooting was found in nearby Colvestone Crescent.
Pic: PA
At Evin, the Turkish restaurant where the shooting happened, plates of food and half-drunk beers were still laid out on tables on Thursday morning.
Chairs appeared to have been shoved aside in a panic and paramedics’ plastic gloves lay on the floor behind the police cordon.
Police said they have an open mind about the motive and want any witnesses with video or pictures to contact them.
London Ambulance Service said a trauma team from the air ambulance was among multiple resources sent to the scene.
“We treated three adults and one child at the scene before taking them all to a major trauma centre,” a statement said.
Source Agencies
