LONDON: London police said on Monday they had arrested a 22-year-old man after a seven-year-old girl was left fighting for her life following a shooting as mourners left a church service.
Gunshots rang out at the St Aloysius church in Euston, central London, on Saturday afternoon as mourners were leaving a requiem mass for a mother and daughter.
“Detectives investigating the shooting outside a church in Euston have arrested a 22-year-old man on suspicion of attempted murder,“ the Metropolitan Police said.
The man was arrested in northwest London shortly before 4:00 pm (1600 GMT) on Sunday and remains in custody, the Met added.
Police believe the shots were fired from a moving vehicle which was then driven away from the scene.
The priest who conducted the service, Father Jeremy Trood, said it had been a requiem mass for Sara Sanchez, 20, and her mother Fresia Calderon, who both died within a month of each other in November.
The younger woman succumbed to leukaemia while her mother died after suffering a blood clot on arrival at Heathrow airport from Colombia, the MyLondon news website reported.
“I heard this almighty bang and I thought this was not normal, and the next minute everyone was screaming and shouting,“ a neighbour was quoted as telling British media.
The Daily Telegraph meanwhile reported that Calderon’s late ex-husband Carlos Arturo Sanchez-Coronado was jailed in the UK in 2009 after being convicted of money laundering for a London drug gang linked to the Colombian Cali cartel.
During raids on the gang, police seized millions of pounds (dollars) of cash and drugs with a street value of £100 million ($122 million).
Sanchez-Coronado fled to Colombia, but was tracked down and extradited to the UK, the daily said.
In addition to the seven-year-old girl, four women and another girl, 12, were wounded in the incident near the busy Euston railway station.
The 12-year-old girl was discharged from hospital after treatment for minor leg injuries.
A 21-year-old woman was also taken to a central London hospital but police said her injuries were not life-threatening.
Three other women aged 41, 48 and 54 remained in hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, although the 48-year-old’s were “potentially life changing”, police said.
A witness told MyLondon the shots were fired as mourners who had attended the mass watched doves being released afterwards. -AFP
