Thursha Kamaleswaran was visiting her uncle’s convenience store in Stockwell, south London, with her brother, sister and their parents on Tuesday evening when three teenagers dressed in black scarves cycled past and opened fire, shooting her in the chest.
Thursha, who started school in September, remained in a critical condition in hospital last night but opened her eyes for the first time since the attack.
Roshan Selvakumar, the 35-year-old tenant of the flat above the shop who had dropped in to buy beer when he was shot in the face, was also in a critical but stable condition.
Detectives said that a teenager, believed to be one of the intended targets of the gang, had come forward to help police trace the attackers. The boy, said to be in his late teens, was one of two youths who ran into the shop to take cover, moments before two shots were fired. Yesterday it was reported that another boy aged around 16 had stopped at a nearby shop to boast that he was one of the targets.