A nine-year-old girl who was shot while having dinner with her family at an east London restaurant is in a critical condition.

She was one of four victims injured on Wednesday evening in Hackney by an attacker who escaped on a motorbike.

Police said the girl was “fighting for her life”, while three men – aged 26, 37 and 42 – are in a stable condition.

One of them faces “potentially facing life changing injuries”, said Chief Superintendent James Conway, speaking on Thursday afternoon.

Families 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 they don’t believe she knew the other victims.

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Chief Supt Conway said she was an “innocent victim of the indiscriminate nature of gun crime”.

He said armed officers are on patrol in the area 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.

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.

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