An inquest has heard how nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel was scooped up by police officers and taken to hospital after being fatally shot in the chest at her home.

The schoolgirl died in hospital after being attacked by a balaclava-clad gunman who chased another man into her house in Liverpool at around 10pm on Monday 22 August.

Armed officers who attended the scene in Dovecot “scooped and ran with her” to get her to hospital in the back of a police car, while an officer covered her chest wound with their hand.

Olivia went into cardiac arrest and in spite of “extensive efforts” she could not be resuscitated.

A senior coroner called the shooting “heinous and unforgiving”.

Andre Rebello told the court in Liverpool that he had been in the post 15 years ago at the time of the murder of schoolboy Rhys Jones and it was “quite shocking that society has not changed for the better”.

Opening and adjourning Olivia’s inquest, the court heard that Olivia had been identified by her mother’s fiancé after suffering a gunshot wound to the chest on the evening of Monday August 22.

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Mr Rebello said “there must be people in the city and elsewhere who know precisely by what means Olivia died and further who was responsible”. He continued: “Parents expect to bury their own parents but not their children.”

Olivia’s mother, Cheryl Korbel, was injured after the same bullet struck her in the wrist before fatally wounding her daughter who was standing just behind her.

The masked killer then fired two more shots at the intended target, 35-year-old Joseph Nee, inside the home before fleeing on foot.

Nee was injured and his associates took him to hospital as the mother and daughter lay wounded, before Olivia was rushed to hospital by police and her mother was helped by paramedics.

The gunman had put his hand through the doorway of the property in Kingsheath Avenue, Dovecot, as Ms Korbel tried to ram it shut, and he opened fire.

Moments before, Nee had barged his way into the house to try to escape the attacker when he saw the door open by Ms Korbel who had heard a commotion outside.

Olivia’s killer is still on the loose as Merseyside officers continue to appeal for information.

The schoolgirl became the third person in Liverpool to lose their lives to gun violence in a week.

During the 30-minute hearing, Mr Rebello also opened and adjourned the inquests of the other victims.

The Gerard Majella courthouse heard how mechanic Sam Rimmer died in hospital on 17 August from a gunshot wound to the chest after being fired at “numerous times” by two males on electric bikes in Dingle.

Mr Rimmer was hit “at least once” after he and two other males “chased them initially”.

Ashley Dale, a 28 year old environmental health officer, died from a gunshot wound to the abdomen after police found “several casings” from “multiple rounds” fired in her backyard in Old Swan on 21 August.

The coroner adjourned all three inquests until 4 January. He released the victims’ bodies to their families so that their funerals can take place and he urged anyone with information about the three active homicide investigations to contact police.

Over the weekend, police investigating Olivia’s death released on bail two men who had been arrested and questioned on suspicion of murder and two counts of attempted murder.

They were a 36-year-old man from Huyton and a 33-year-old man from Dovecot.

The 36-year-old has been recalled to prison after breaching the terms of his licence.

Nee will also be recalled to jail for breaching the terms of his release.

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