A witness reported that the shots were fired as mourners who had attended the mass watched a subsequent release of doves.
A 7-year-old girl is in critical condition after five others were injured in a shooting at a church in London on Saturday, police said.
The faithful, who had come to a mass to honor a mother and her daughter who died in November, fled screaming from this Catholic church in the capital when shots rang out.
Near a busy train station
“Upon initial investigation, the shots were fired from a moving vehicle which then drove away from the scene,” the London Metropolitan Police said in a press release, calling for witnesses.
“I heard this loud bang and I thought it wasn’t normal and the next minute everyone was screaming and screaming,” a neighbor told the PA news agency.
In addition to the seven-year-old girl, another 12-year-old girl and four women were injured in the shooting near the busy Euston train station.
A mass in honor of a mother and her daughter
The other girl was released from hospital after being treated for minor leg injuries. Four other women, aged 21 to 54, whose lives are not in danger, remain hospitalized, police said.
A witness told news site MyLondon that the shots were fired as mourners who had attended the mass watched the subsequent release of pigeons.
The priest in charge of the service, Father Jeremy Trood, told the PA news agency it was a mass honoring 20-year-old Sara Sanchez and her mother, who died a month apart in November, the first of leukemia and the second of Thrombosis.