A seven-year-old girl has been left fighting for her life after she was shot in what is believed to have been a drive-by shooting outside of a church in central London.
A shooting outside a remembrance service at the St Aloysius Church in Euston on Saturday resulted in six people being injured. Among the victims were a 12-year-old and a seven-year-old, who is said to still be in “life-threatening” condition.
Four women, aged 21, 41, 48, and 54 were also injured during the shooting, with the 48-year-old said to have suffered life-altering injuries.
In a police statement, Superintendent Ed Wells said: “Any shooting incident is unacceptable, but for multiple people, including two children, to be injured in a shooting in the middle of a Saturday afternoon is shocking.
“Our thoughts are with all the victims, but in particular with the seven-year-old girl who is in a life threatening condition and with her family.
“An investigation into this dreadful attack is already well under way involving local officers and specialist detectives. I can assure the communities of Camden and beyond that we will do everything we possibly can to identify and bring to justice those who were responsible.”
Speaking to the BBC, Father Jeremy Trood, who conducted the remembrance service for a leukaemia victim and her mother, said: “I was inside the church. I heard the bang and people ran back into the church. They knew something had happened outside.
“They were very scared, people sheltered in the church until the police said they can leave but some of them were so scared they had to wait a while to get their confidence back up to go outside.”
Another witness, Jaouida Ifghallal, told the local news outlet MyLondon: “When the service finished, we were outside to see the flying of doves… A black car came and started to shoot bullets. It was chaotic.”
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said that he was in contact with the Met Police over the shooting, which he described as “deeply disturbing”.
During every year Khan’s tenure in office, the British capital has seen over 100 homicides. Last year, there were 109 recorded killings in London, nine of which were shootings, alongside 69 deadly stabbings. Out of the 109 homicides, 14 of the victims were teenagers.
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