What we know about the Hackney motorbike drive-by shooting

A nine-year-old girl who was shot by a motorbike rider outside a restaurant in Hackney, east London, on Wednesday night is still in a critical condition, police have said.

The child was having dinner with family in a restaurant on Kingsland Road in Dalston when shots were fired from a motorbike outside at around 9.20pm in what police said was a "pre-planned" attack. Three men, aged 37, 42 and 44, were also hurt.

The owner of the restaurant told the Guardian the "very lively and really cute" girl was inside the building and "jumping on chairs" when she was hit by a bullet.

Police said the bike, which has since been recovered, was a Ducati Monster with a white body, red chassis and red wheels, with the registration DP21 0XY - they have urged anyone with any information to get in touch.

What we know

The Met Police said they were called to reports of a shooting near the Evin restaurant on Kingsland High Street in Dalston, Hackney at around 9.20pm on Wednesday night. Specialist firearms officers were in attendance, the force said.

Three men were sitting outside a restaurant when they were shot by someone riding a motorbike, Detective Chief Superintendent James Conway said on Thursday.

The nine-year-old girl was having dinner inside the restaurant when she was shot and was not sitting with the three other men who were injured.

Police do not believe the three men and the girl were known to each other.

The recovered motorbike had been reported stolen from the Wembley area of London in 2021. No arrests have yet been made.

In a press conference on Friday afternoon, police said the three men were connected to the Turkish and Kurdish communities and appealed for anyone with information to come forward. The 42 and 44-year-old men remain in hospital in a stable condition, with one facing life-changing injuries. The 37-year-old has been discharged.

Metropolitan Police Detective Chief Superintendent James Conway added: "This shocking attack will have had an element of pre-planning. This means there are people out there who know something which may be crucial to our investigation."

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The former firearms commander Dal Babutold BBC Radio 4: "There’s a crime scene where the bike was abandoned, there will be CCTV evidence and the police will be able to track where that suspect goes. At some point, they’re going to remove masks, helmets and what have you so I wouldn’t lose hope there [of tracking them down].

"The actual shooting scene will also be another crime scene."

"The police will do a huge amount of reassurance in that area," he added. "They’ll put additional patrols on and there will be a gold group." That gold group would include the local borough commander as well as partners from the local authority and local community, he said, to provide further reassurance.

What we don't know

While we know that the child’s injuries are serious, we don’t know the nature of those injuries, nor do we have any details on the injuries sustained by the three adults.

The identities of the victims have not yet been released and we do not know if they were targets of the shooting or unintended victims.

We also don’t know how many suspects are being sought or what the motives were behind the shooting.

‘Everyone was just stunned’

The owner of the restaurant Gazi Degirmenci, told the Guardian, about the moment the incident unfolded.

“The child was very lively and really cute," he said. "I think at the moment the shots were fired she might have been jumping on the chairs … They were having dinner as a family. There was definitely another child, because that child was very scared.

“There was loads of shouting and then we realised that one of the bullets had hit a child inside. The child was not with them [the three men outside], she was sitting at a table behind them.”

Local business owner Ayo Adesina told Yahoo News UK that he heard “four to five shots” as he was leaving his Aso Rock restaurant, which is situated around 70 metres from where the shooting took place.

He said: “I saw lots of people gathered round I saw a man on the floor and people said a man in a black helmet on a bike just pulled up started shooting then sped off. There were hundreds of people that gathered round before the emergency services came.

Adesina said he saw “a man on his back on the floor and a woman kind of slumped on a chair and someone who worked in the shop was trying to cover her leg”. He added: “Everyone was just stunned.”

He said he believed the shooter attacked people sitting outside a local restaurant eating. Adesina said: “They have lots of restaurants on the high street. In the summer people sit outside on the pavement. Seems like the shooter targeted the people sitting outside eating.

Adesina described the incident as “very, very, very reckless”. He added: “Families eat in there all the time. I have even taken my kids there for food before.”

• Anyone with information can contact the police on 101 or 0208 345 3865 or pass on information anonymously via Crime Stoppers on 0800 555 111.