LONDON: Police in London are appealing to the city’s Turkish and Kurdish communities for information about a drive-by shooting that has left a nine-year-old girl fighting for her life.

The child was in a restaurant in the east of the city on Wednesday when a gunman on a motorbike opened fire on men sitting outside. Three of the men were taken to hospital, with two in a serious condition.

The nine-year-old girl was shot and is in critical condition, a police statement confirmed on Friday.

“We remain in close contact with our colleagues in the NHS who have worked around the clock to provide urgent care to the ­victims, including the young girl, who I’m very sad to say remains in a critical ­condition,” Detective Chief Superintendent James Conway said.

Conway called for assistance from Turkish and Kurdish people living in London to find the assailants, who used a stolen Ducati motorbike in the attack, because the three men injured in the shooting “have connections to those communities.”

Conway said: “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. Gun crime has no place on the streets of London and this reckless act has left a young child fighting for her life.

“We are specifically reaching out to our Turkish and Kurdish communities, particularly in north and east London, who I know are shocked and appalled by this crime. This is because the three men who were shot have connections to those communities,” he added.

Speaking to The Times newspaper, the chief executive of the Turkish Cypriot Community Association in London, Erim Metto, said: “As a community we’re totally and utterly shocked by the incident that occurred at the restaurant on Wednesday. As people, as members of the community, we need to feel safe that, as we’re commuting, we can enter stores, we can go to restaurants with our families with no threat. Violence has no time in our streets and (of) the four victims which suffered injuries, one of those is a child.

Metto added: “We need to request from people in the community to come forward with information that will help with the ­investigation. Any small piece of information — we would urge you to contact the lines which have been given by the police and bring that ­information to the front. Let’s try and help with the investigation if we can.”